Courts fine Liverpool hackney taxi’s targeting Sefton’s streets FIGURES reveal a shock rise in the number of hackney carriages with Liverpool licences caught plying for hire in Sefton.
Statistics gathered through a joint police and taxi licensing unit operation were sent before Sefton Council’s licensing and regulatory committee on Tuesday.
The results show that the number of Liverpool licensed hackney carriage drivers among the taxi drivers brought before the courts increased from 66% in 2011/2012 to 80% in 2012/2013.
Ex-hackney cab driver, and Conservative Cambridge Ward councillor, Tony Crabtree said the figures and statistics reflect just how desperate the taxi trade is.
He added: “Once you go out of your own area, you are not supposed to have your ‘for hire’ sign on if you are a hackney. But there will be some that just forget to turn it off and have been caught that way.
“Then some of these cabs will be deliberately competing, or plying for hire, in Sefton.”
John Whiteside, the boss of Southport’s Yellow Tops Taxis told the Visiter that he does not see many Liverpool cabs in the Southport area and that it is the south of the borough that is most affected.
He added: “Because it is Sefton as a whole, it might be that these drivers are getting caught coming over the boundary to Bootle.
“My drivers have not said many Liverpool cabs are coming up here. I know we get Bootle taxis up here at the weekend because our economy is better, but they are allowed to work the ranks here.”
The statistics also showed that the number of Sefton private hire drivers caught illegally plying for hire has decreased from 25% to 8% of the cases prosecuted. Knowsley drivers now account for 12%.
Private hire taxis are only permitted to take fares that have been booked with a firm, otherwise they are not insured.
David Moorhouse, a driver with Quick Cars, said that in 2005 he was fined £715 and received six points on his licence after picking up a non-booked fare in an undercover operation.
He added: “Money is money, of course I wanted to earn the fare.
“They looked like a respectable couple, so I let them jump in quick and took them to Ormskirk. They paid me and no one said a word.
“The next day I found out I had actually picked up two undercover community police officers – and I was taken to court and fined.
“This day and age money is tight and all the drivers want or need to make money. If someone flags me, at the end of the day I am taxi and I will go and pick them up.”
source:
http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/south ... -34255863/
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