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Call for change in taxi licensing laws after chauffeur scandal
Ministers have been urged to overhaul how the taxi business is licensed rather than allow almost 400 councils to each have their own rules following a chauffeur scandal in which tens of thousands of passengers travelled in potentially dangerous vehicles.
The Times revealed this week that one of Britain’s biggest chauffeur firms was for years using clocked cars that were not properly licensed, insured or maintained. Professional Chauffeur Services, known as PCS, which transported celebrities and VIPs, evaded detection by persuading council officials to dismiss complaints and a reluctance by the authorities to upset its biggest client, Emirates Airline, a major foreign investor in the north of England.
The company, which was run from Runcorn in Cheshire went more than 200 miles to Berwick council to obtain an operator’s licence. It also used a licensing official at the council to establish a structure that the company said exempted its drivers and cars from normal licensing rules, using Scottish law but was actually a scam.
The company only had its activities stopped after Trading Standards brought a successful prosecution for a massive car clocking fraud in which an estimated 50 million miles were removed from the company’s fleet of Mercedes.
After the case, the National Private Hire and Taxi Association, which represents drivers, called for major reform of how companies are licensed. Donna Short, of the association, said: “There are 374 licensing authorities and each has its own game plan. This is one of the factors that allowed PCS to thrive. We need more stringent nation guidelines on licensing and a national database of drivers.”
She called on the government to revisit reforms suggested by the Law Commission after a consultation on how the system could be improved. “The commission spent more than two years producing a set of proposals and a draft bill that was put on the minister’s desk in 2014 but nothing came of it. It was a dreadful waste of time and effort.”
The Institute of Licensing, which represents licensing officials, is also demanding better national standards to check the background of applicants. James Button,president of the institute, added: “We’ve been concerned for years about variable standards of licensing across the country. This has led to ‘licence shopping’ where drivers, operators, and proprietors find authorities that have lower standards and/or cheaper fees and base themselves in that location before working across the country.”
“This is a serious problem with far too many examples of deeply unsuitable people, sometimes with alarming criminal records, being licensed. In the face of apparently deep inertia on the part of the government, the Institute is trying to raise awareness of the matter.”
The drivers’ association also wants the police and councils to take complaints about rogue operators more seriously. Ms Short said: “Halton, Berwick, Northumberland, and Cheshire councils, the airports and Manchester police all missed chances to stop PCS.”
John Murphy, 66, the man who ran PCS and who is serving a three-year sentence for fraud, insists the Scottish exemption was legal and says his cars were serviced more regularly than required.
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