Minicab drivers lose licences in crackdown after sex grooming case Heywood minicab drivers in public safety crackdown after sex grooming scandal Five minicab drivers and one hackney carriage driver have had their licences torn up in a council clamp-down called in the wake of the town’s grooming scandal.
Rochdale council say they have adopted a ‘robust’ approach to protecting ‘vulnerable members of the community’ from rogue cabbies after nine men were jailed for 77 years in 2012 for a string of sexual abuse against youngsters in Heywood .
Five of those who were convicted of child sex offences were private hire drivers who drove their young victims around in their licenced cabs.
Since then, council bosses who issue licences to private and public hire cabs, say that they have overhauled the way they assess new and existing drivers to see if they are ‘fit and proper’ to be on the road.
That has resulted in six drivers losing their licences after they were judged to pose a potential risk to the public either because they had an existing criminal conviction or because the council believed there was a ‘reasonable cause’ to question their suitability to be a driver.
An seventh driver also had their licence revoked, but had it reinstated on appeal.
Of the six drivers who had their licences revoked, one allegedly tried to start an relationship with a 15-year-old girl while another allegedly had connections to some of those jailed for grooming vulnerable youngsters in May 2012.
Another had exposed himself to a customer while a different driver had convictions for common assault and had made threats to kill.
All six drivers have had their licences withdrawn over the last 12 months.
In a report to councillors, Andy Glover , the council’s public protection manager, said the council was going further than other authorities to try to safeguard people.
source:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... rs-7020709
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