Taxi Driver Online

Loophole lets sex fiends drive a bus

A LEGAL loophole allows private hire drivers on the road without criminal record checks. The gap in the law came to light after the case of convicted sex attacker Murtaza Mateen, who returned to work as a driver and raped a passenger.

Mateen was employed to drive a minibus for a Manchester Airport-based firm, despite a previous conviction for indecently assaulting a woman when he was a taxi driver in the 1990s. He went on to rape a 42-year-old woman he picked up in the minibus last June.

Taxi and private hire drivers operating in Manchester have to be checked with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) before they are given a licence. But the firm which employed Mateen - Airportcarz - only operates minibuses and holds a bus operators' licence rather than a private hire licence.

Bus drivers do not have to be cleared by the CRB unless they are working with vulnerable adults and children. Bosses at Essex-based Excellent Connections, which trades as Airportcarz at four airports, claim they carry out CRB checks on all drivers although they are not legally required to do so.

Explanation

But the firm, which has two booking offices at Manchester Airport, has failed to provide any explanation as to how Mateen slipped through the net. Transport bosses have now called for this loophole to be closed and for bus drivers to be given compulsory checks.

Mateen, 47, of Old Trafford, was given an indefinite jail term on Monday and was told he must serve a minimum of four years and 110 days after a judge said he was a danger to the public.

When Mateen applied for a Passenger Carrying Vehicle (PCV) licence to drive the minibus, he should have declared any criminal convictions. But if he didn't, only a CRB check would have revealed them.

Beverley Bell, the north west's Traffic Commissioner, said she would like to see CRB checks on all PCV drivers and her calls have been supported by police chiefs.

Coun Neil Swannick, of Manchester city council, revealed Mateen had twice applied for a private hire licence and been turned down by the licensing and appeals committee.

Excellent Connections' website says all its drivers are CRB checked and undergo a full induction programme.

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IDFIMH

FFS he was a bus driver, not a PH driver.

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IDFIMH

correct, but we're easy targets. We wouldnt be if we were united, but that'll never happen.