Taxi Driver Online

Taxi driver locked up for carrying knives and banned for being drunk at wheel granted cabbie licence

A serial offender has been given a taxi licence despite a string of motoring convictions and jail time for carrying knives. John Hepburn was granted his cabbies’ permit even though he has been banned from the road twice, including for being caught drunk behind the wheel.

But the 51-year-old persuaded a licensing committee he should be allowed to take members of the public in his car.

Council leaders heard the dad had been locked-up for four months after being caught with two blades and had also been convicted of driving without a licence or insurance. Hepburn, of Alexandria, near Dumbarton, defended his right to work as a taxi driver, claiming his life of crime was in the past.

He said he had armed himself with two knives after hearing his younger brother Roy, 27, had been killed by a local man armed with a samurai sword in the neighbouring town of Bonhill. David Crawford, 40, was later jailed for life after pleading guilty to the murder.

Hepburn said: “The offences were a long time ago and I’ve moved on. “I just want to make a new life for myself, my wife and family. “This is my first attempt at getting a licence and I’m delighted.

“I knew with my previous convictions that it would be difficult. “I’m a lot older and wiser now and realise how stupid these things were at the time. Some of my children have medical problems, so I want to help them. ”When I was caught with the knives, I’d just been told that my brother had been murdered and I handed them to the police after I had heard that someone was in custody.”

Councillors were read his list of convictions which included one for driving in Alexandria without a licence and insurance in March 2003. He was given a £100 fine. The following year, he was jailed for being in possession of the black hunting knife and kitchen knife.

In January 2005, Hepburn was fined £350 and banned from the road for driving under the influence of alcohol. On a separate occasion, he was fined £400 after he damaged a parked car near his home before driving off. When he was tracked down by police, they found he was banned from driving and uninsured.

In March 2007, Hepburn was fined £335 and again disqualified for driving with no insurance. And in March 2016, he was fined £100 for driving with a provisional licence without supervision.

The former brickie was called to the licensing committee at West Dunbartonshire Council last month before being granted his permit. A council spokeswoman said: “The licensing committee takes into account a range of details, including background information, when determining any application for a licence.

“In this case, the application for a taxi licence was granted for one year.”

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IDFIMH

Are we having a sweepstake to see how long it takes for him to appear in another news story on here ?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

In fact for those paying attention I did post this story almost a month ago, and you did comment on it back then, so a degree of irony in your latest remarks

Saw this latest version early this morning, and was in two minds whether to post it again, because there's nothing really that much different from the original piece (except the point that the reason he had been carrying knives was because his brother had been murdered) except for the not particularly reassuring photo (I know we shouldn't judge by appearances and all that, but...):


Image: Sunday Mail/Jamie Williamson

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=35199&p=396386

However, what maybe is interesting (and maybe why I intended reposting this latest version now posted by Sussex) is that although the original article was in the local press, this latest one seems to be in the national Sunday Mail (which is roughly Scotland's equivalent to the Sunday Mirror).

So I don't know whether they just think it's an issue worthy of national coverage, or just because it's a slow time of the year for news, so they're trawling the local press looking for stuff to rehash.

*I* thought it was worthy of more coverage at the time, but then *I'm* biased in these matters. But whether the Sunday Mail would have included it at a more normal time of year I don't know.

(Although Sussex hasn't provided a link, I assume it's the article found via this on the Daily Record web domain. Note that the Sunday Mail and Daily Record [roughly Scotland's Mirror] seem to share the same website, so although the article will be in the Sunday Mail newspaper, it's on the Daily Record's website/domain:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scot ... g-21214653 )

I suspect many of here aren't oil paintings.

But that mush looks as iffy as an iffy thing on iffy day.

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IDFIMH