Taxi Driver Online

Taxi driver stripped of licence for financially grooming elderly passenger while operating in North West Leicestershire

A taxi driver, working in North West Leicestershire, who preyed on a vulnerable 70-year-old passenger and extorted thousands of pounds from her, has had his licence stripped by a council, magistrates and crown court judge.

Tariq Mahmood, of Grange Street, Burton on Trent, appeared at Leicester Crown Court on 30 November after appealing a 2022 decision by North West Leicestershire District Council (NWLDC) to remove his licence.

The 50-year-old was reported to the council in 2022 for grooming a passenger, Lorna, and defrauding her of £5,000.

NWLDC's Licensing Sub-Committee agreed on 15 March 2022 to remove Mahmood's licence, but this decision was appealed to Leicester Magistrates Court and upheld.

Mahmood appealed again, taking the decision to crown court. Judges at the court heard that before NWLDC received a complaint from the passenger's daughter, Mahmood had over nine years committed a large number of low-level offences including being banned from driving and road rage.

Mahmood befriended Lorna after she used his taxi and over six months accepted up to 23 payments from her totalling £5,000.

Despite claiming to judges that the payments were loans, Mahmood could not demonstrate to NWLDC, magistrates or judges that he would be able to repay the money.

Cllr Michael Wyatt, NWLDC Portfolio Holder for Communities and Climate Change, said: "We are committed to keeping the travelling public safe, our continued defence of our 2022 decision to remove a licence because the danger the driver posed to the public is evidence of this.

"Taxi drivers are trusted to make sure the vulnerable get home safely. Everybody will have an experience of going out at night, someone getting into a bad state, the call is always "put them in a taxi, get them home safe" – taxi drivers should be trusted to do that."

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IDFIMH

Is it just me, or does this piece (which is an official council news release) make it all sound like something it isn't?

That is, he was never convicted of any offence in relation to the money

Indeed, there's nothing in the piece to suggest he was ever even prosecuted

That's not to say the driver shouldn't have been revoked, but I doubt the average reader of the Leicester Mercury, say (where it's been faithfully rehashed), will pick up on the fact that there's nothing in the piece about a criminal offence

This seems to be about the extent of the complaint. It doesn't say, but I wonder if she complained to police?


That's not to say that there may be some kind of parallel criminal process going on, which hasn't been mentioned above. But the complaint must have been made nearly two years ago, so I suspect there's nothing else happening.

Strange use of the word 'grooming', too. I know the word has kind of entered popular parlance and its meaning is maybe a bit wider than it was a few years ago. But in official discourse it seems to normally apply to sexual stuff and a person significantly younger than the perp, as opposed to the 70-year-old victim here.

It is very hard to prove, especially when the other witness is a vulnerable adult. So I doubt the CPS would take it up.

However as the council doesn't need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, they have decided he isn't fit and proper, which has been confirmed by the court.

Both in my view correctly.

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IDFIMH

I think a person can be financially groomed if it's a process that has gradually occurred over a period, rather than a one-off action.

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IDFIMH