Taxi Driver Online

I normally look for the official source for this kind of thing. If only to work out who's responsible for the misuse of the f-word in the headline here

But MK Council doesn't seem to do official news releases, or Facebook posts, or whatever, for this kind of thing - it's maybe more the old school method of sending stuff direct to the press for this kind of thing.

Anyway, nothing particularly out of the ordinary here, but like South Oxfordshire Council, Milton Keynes seems to do quite a lot of this kind of thing

But presumably local cars here.


Private hire drivers fined over £3,000 for illegal pick-ups in Milton Keynes

https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/cri ... es-5486488

Two private hire drivers have been fined over £3,000 in total after an undercover operation by Milton Keynes City Council exposed illegal pick-ups.

The drivers were fined after illegally picking up customers without bookings, which leaves passengers uninsured in the case of an incident.

City Council staff went undercover in a test purchase operation on July 27 2025. They pretended to be customers to check if private hire drivers were following the legal requirement for all journeys to be pre‑booked through a licensed operator.

In the first case, Sikandar Malik of Wolverton picked up two council officers in Wolverton and drove them to Fenny Stratford without a booking. He pleaded guilty at Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court on 16 January 2026 and was fined for plying for hire and for driving without valid insurance for the journey. Mr Malik was ordered to pay a total of £1,145 and received six DVLA penalty points. His private hire licence will now be reviewed by the city council.

The second driver, Ali Rahimy Mohammad of Great Holm, picked up two council officers in Stony Stratford and took them to Fenny Stratford without any booking. He was found guilty at the same court on January 16 2026 and was fined for plying for hire and driving without insurance. He was ordered to pay £1,890 and received eight DVLA penalty points. His licence will also be reviewed.

Private hire vehicles must always be pre‑booked through an operator. Picking up customers without a booking is illegal and leaves passengers uninsured. The City Council says that it will continue to carry out regular checks to help keep people safe.

Cabinet Member for Regulatory Services, Councillor Mick Legg said: “Private hire vehicles must be booked through a licensed operator so that journeys are safe, legal and fully insured.

These cases show why enforcement is so important. We’ll continue carrying out checks to protect passengers and make sure licensing rules are followed.”

Although maybe the figures cited were just fines, because there's no breakdown in terms of fines, costs, victim surcharge, or whatever.

But the word 'pay a total' suggests the £1,145 comprises several different components, only one of which would be a *fine*

In fact, the other recently publicised Milton Keynes prosecutions were about assistance dog refusals as opposed to plying for hire.

what is it with MK drivers there must have been more caught there over the last 25 years than the rest of the UK put together

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

...but is it the drivers, or the enforcement?

They can't be the only council in the UK actually carrying out enforcement surely ?

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

It would have been the total bill to pay, including fines, cost and VS.

The reason the two sets of bills and points differ between the defendants is that one turned up at court and one did not.

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IDFIMH