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PostPosted: Sat Mar 06, 2021 8:09 pm 
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Is it me or does this seem a tad over the top? :-k

Glasgow Taxi driver who caused elderly woman to fall from car has licence bid refused

A TAXI driver who caused an elderly woman to fall by driving off as she got into his car has been refused a new licence.

Abdul Waheed Akbari asked Glasgow City Council to renew his licence for three years.

But licensing chiefs turned his request down after Police Scotland revealed he had been convicted in 2017 over the incident.

The committee heard how Mr Akbari had been collecting three passengers from Renfield Street.

A police spokeswoman said he began to drive off before they could all get into his car “causing an elderly female passenger to fall out of the taxi and on to the ground”.

“She shouted for help and Mr Akbari stopped the taxi.”

Two passers-by then helped the woman back into the car. She later received pain relief for minor injuries from her local medical centre.

Mr Akbari was fined £425 and given three penalty points on his licence – but he failed to tell the council about the incident in his application.

He argued he had attended a meeting, for his previous licence, and explained the incident.

“I thought that was done,” he said. “I explained everything at the time.”

However, licensing chairman Alex Wilson said: “At the time, it wasn’t a conviction. At this time, you have now been found guilty.”

Mr Akbari then said he had been parked on a steep hill when the incident happened.

“I never drove off,” he claimed. “The way they complained was I drove off with the passenger hanging out the door, but I never.

“The car moved a wee bit and the passenger fell.”

He added: “Since then, I haven’t had any issue with any customer at all.”

Councillor Malcolm Balfour asked whether his car’s dashboard showed when a door was still open.

He also said: “When you’re stopped on a hill do you not engage your handbrake as well?”

Councillor Gary Gray asked: “Does your car have wing mirrors? Why didn’t you use them on the night? Surely before you would move off, you would check your mirrors.”

Mr Akbari, who has been a taxi driver since 2013, said the light on his dashboard was broken at the time, adding: “I didn’t even drive, I just slightly took my foot off the brake and the car slightly moved.”

He also claimed the passenger had been drunk and unstable.

“This is the only incident that happened in the car, I’ve never had any problem,” the driver said.

Mr Wilson said: “You should have notified us in your renewal and you should have notified us after you were charged.

“If you had read the terms and conditions of your licence you would understand that.”

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 07, 2021 10:03 am 
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Sussex wrote:
Is it me or does this seem a tad over the top?

Does seem that way, especially considering the incident happened in 2017, and he's been driving since then until now.

And the committee considered the incident at a previous hearing, but took no action - I'm guessing that was when he applied to renew in 2018. Of course, the committee is now saying he hadn't been formally convicted at that time, but it's not really clear how that made all the difference as regards whether or not he is considered a safe driver - it's a bit like the reverse of the normal situation, where it's irrelevant to licensing councillors whether or not police considered the behaviour criminal.

But the fact he didn't declare the conviction on his latest application also seems to have been a factor. And I'm not sure how these things work, but when the committee considered his case in 2018, police presumably at that time were considering whether or not to prosecute. Then they did, but the council doesn't get to know about this until he reapplied in 2021 - don't the police liaise with the council in cases like this before a renewal application is made?

(The article says he was convicted in 2017, but I'm guessing that was actually when the incident happened. The article also says it was discussed when he reapplied previously, which I'm guessing was 2018, which would be consistent with a three-year badge expiring this year. But the article states he hadn't been convicted at the time of his last application, thus the conviction couldn't have happened in 2017.

But who knows - there might have been procedural delays due to Covid etc. But whatever the actual dates, the incident certainly happened several years ago, but it's only now he's been turfed out of his job as a consequence :? )


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:56 pm 
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Quote:
Mr Akbari was fined £425 and given three penalty points on his licence – but he failed to tell the council about the incident in his application.



In my experience councils are much stricter about administrative errors than serious wrongdoing it is much easier to catch people out than to go looking for faults. The driver wrongly believed the council had been told but they needed telling twice once before and once after the conviction so he got jumped on from a big height

If he had a habit of not maintaining his vehicle or running it with bald tyres and was never spotted you can bet they wouldn't have been out checking vehicles

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 12:01 pm 
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edders23 wrote:
Quote:
Mr Akbari was fined £425 and given three penalty points on his licence – but he failed to tell the council about the incident in his application.

If you are going to highlight something it might be worth considering making it easy to read rather than harder. #-o

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 12:40 pm 
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Sussex wrote:
edders23 wrote:
Quote:
Mr Akbari was fined £425 and given three penalty points on his licence – but he failed to tell the council about the incident in his application.

If you are going to highlight something it might be worth considering making it easy to read rather than harder. #-o


Lovely shade of green that....maybe not so much if your a Glasgow Rangers fan though.


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 7:02 am 
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bloodnock wrote:
Sussex wrote:
edders23 wrote:
Quote:
Mr Akbari was fined £425 and given three penalty points on his licence – but he failed to tell the council about the incident in his application.

If you are going to highlight something it might be worth considering making it easy to read rather than harder. #-o


Lovely shade of green that....maybe not so much if your a Glasgow Rangers fan though.



just thought it would make a nice change and highlight to Trotsky that his other team have been beaten out of sight this year :lol:

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:41 pm 
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edders23 wrote:
Quote:
Mr Akbari was fined £425 and given three penalty points on his licence – but he failed to tell the council about the incident in his application.



In my experience councils are much stricter about administrative errors than serious wrongdoing it is much easier to catch people out than to go looking for faults. The driver wrongly believed the council had been told but they needed telling twice once before and once after the conviction so he got jumped on from a big height

If he had a habit of not maintaining his vehicle or running it with bald tyres and was never spotted you can bet they wouldn't have been out checking vehicles


Isn't there a question on renewals or applications about any convictions in recent years? I'm sure ours does.

At the time of his previous renewal in 2018, maybe it wasn't finalised by the police/courts etc? Maybe he didn't fully disclose the nature of it or maybe the Council or Police cut a corner by doing a thorough check when issuing in '18 or maybe it crossed over with dates?

We had something similar happening to a driver here. He was able to keep driving until his next renewal where they refused him, which seems a bit strange the Council aren't more proactive on something that they're going to later stop a licence for.


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:10 pm 
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It's an Olde English saying there's nowt as queer as council folk :wink:

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