Taxi Driver Online

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Glasgow private hire driver caught with £20k of dirty cash keeps licence

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glas ... t-32920955

Raja Sadiq has been handed a severe warning by Glasgow's licensing committee over the incident.

A private hire driver caught with £20,000 in his bank account, which had been obtained by fraud, has been allowed to keep his licence.

Raja Sadiq pleaded guilty to possessing the cash, which was criminal property, and was sentenced to 160 hours of unpaid work earlier this month.

Police Scotland objected to Mr Sadiq’s bid to renew his private hire car driver’s licence as a result of the incident.

But councillors on the city’s licensing committee agreed to grant a restricted one-year licence to Mr Sadiq.

Cllr Alex Wilson, SNP, the chair of the licensing committee, recorded his dissent.

The committee did hand Mr Sadiq — who has been tagged for seven weeks, keeping him indoors between 7pm and 7am — a severe warning over his future conduct.

A Police Scotland representative told councillors that the applicant “did have possession of criminal property… namely £20,000”. She said the incident had occurred in 2020.

The applicant’s solicitor said her client had been in “continuous employment since the offence as a taxi driver” and had “accrued no complaints during this time nor any further convictions”.

She said Mr Sadiq had “learned his lesson” and described him as “a pillar of his community”. “He’s the main earner of his family, essentially the breadwinner,” she added.

Mr Sadiq made a “foolish decision” and has “expressed deep remorse throughout”, the solicitor said.

Would be interesting to hear what he said. Particularly since these reports are normally good at conveying his speechmaking and moralising

It's all a bit murky, though - wonder why this 'incident' from 2020 has only just come to court? And although it's not clear, the narrative above kind of makes it sound like he got his badge at about the time of the offence. Or at least before it

I think there might be an argument that money laundering doesn't make you a danger to the public but it's a pretty feeble one

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

I don't think 'danger to the public' is the relevant thing in cases like this. I mean, if you lose your job at the bank because you're guilty of fraud, embezzlement and false accounting, or whatever, then you might not be a danger to the public, but maybe not a good idea to be given a taxi badge the next day