|
Bristol cabbie loses licence after concealing sleep disorder
A Bristol cabbie who “placed the public at risk” by failing to disclose a serious sleep disorder and a heart condition has lost his licence. The private hire driver should have informed the city council the next day after he was diagnosed with sleep apnoea, which causes breathing to stop and start, and angina – chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart muscles that warns of a stroke or heart attack.
But on his licence renewal application in March he claimed he had no health issues, Bristol City Council’s public protection and safety sub-committee heard. Recently published minutes of the private meeting said this was “plainly an incorrect statement” because a medical report given to the licensing team by the driver himself said he was diagnosed with angina in June 2020 and the sleep condition in September last year.
The driver told the panel that he experienced sleep apnoea following a racially motivated attack in 2022 and that he believed treatment had sorted it. But councillors heard he had an “extensive history of behavioural issues” and antisocial incidents, including “hostility to a traffic warden” which was “dealt with by the courts”, and a collision with a cyclist in 2019.
The driver, who held a private hire licence since 2010, told the panel he was on medication for the heart illness but that it was “suspected rather than diagnosed” and that because he had not had surgery he did not believe it was serious enough to declare. However, members heard there was no supporting evidence to suggest doctors only suspected angina.
The minutes from the hearing on July 25 said the sub-committee refused his licence renewal on the grounds that he was not a “fit and proper person” and that failing to disclose the health conditions was a breach of his licence. They said: “He had been diagnosed with angina in 2020 but had failed to declare this on his 2021 application form.
“He had therefore failed on two occasions to declare medical conditions. This was a matter of grave concern to the committee since had these conditions been revealed when they should have been, this would have resulted in his licence being suspended or revoked until such time as he was able to satisfy the medical, which is an element of the ‘fit and proper person’ test.
“This had therefore placed the public at risk. [The driver’s] explanation that he did not think he needed to declare these conditions as he considered himself to be a safe driver was not acceptable since he was not a medical expert and it was not therefore within his gift to judge whether he is safe to drive in these circumstances.
“He also continually referred to having ‘suspected’ angina when nowhere in the medical reports was there any mention of this diagnosed condition being ‘suspected’. As far as the angina was concerned, [the driver] said that he did not need surgery, but he continued to take his medication and because he was managing the condition, he did not consider himself to have a ‘current medical condition that affected his driving’.
“Clearly that was not his assessment to make and in order to satisfy the medical he is required to undertake and pass an exercise test. In respect of the sleep apnoea, his view was that he had been misdiagnosed but the council had received nothing from his doctor to support this.”
The panel’s decision said the man had been referred to a sleep clinic and given a machine but it had not helped. "However, notwithstanding his views about this condition, the point was that it is potentially dangerous when behind the wheel and his failure to promptly disclose it had placed the public at risk,” the minutes said.
“It had also deprived the council of the ability to make its own assessment of whether he met the medical. Whilst the members had sympathy for [the driver’s] recent health issues, the overriding consideration is the safety of the public.
“In his case he did not satisfy the fit and proper person test as far as medical fitness was concerned. Even if he was able to subsequently satisfy it by taking the relevant fitness tests and providing medical evidence to support this, the members considered that his failure to promptly disclose two medical conditions which placed the public at risk to be a very serious failing indeed.
“His excuse for not disclosing the medical conditions on two occasions was not due to ignorance of the licensing conditions, but rather he had made a conscious decision not to disclose them because in his own view he was a safe driver. The members considered that these failures placed a question mark over the honesty of [the driver] but at the very least it was irresponsible of him to conceal these conditions from the council.”
_________________
IDFIMH
|
Login
Register
FAQ
