Llanelli Star
September 13, 2007 Thursday
Taxi driver had no cab licence
A Llanelli taxi driver has been banned from driving for a month for driving without insurance and without a licence.
Steven James Johns appeared before Ammanford Magistrates Court for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to the offences.
The prosecution was brought by Carmarthenshire Council.
Magistrates heard that, on February 26, a hackney carriage, operating a school contract, overtook an unmarked vehicle containing council licensing officers near Pontyates.
A subsequent investigation found that the driver, James Johns, of Gathen Close, Llanelli, was driving without a hackney carriage/private hire dual drivers' licence.
He was working for Mastercabs, of Llanelli, and was employed by Shelly Johns, also of Gathen Close, who was the proprietor. By using an unlicensed driver to drive a hackney carriage, the insurance was rendered invalid.
Mr Johns pleaded guilty to driving a licensed hackney carriage without having firstly obtained a licence to do so, and for driving a vehicle with invalid insurance.
He was fined £500, banned from driving for a month, and ordered to pay £400 costs.
At an earlier hearing, Mrs Johns was fined £600, with eight points endorsed on her DVLA driving licence, after pleading guilty to employing an unlicensed driver and operating a vehicle with invalid insurance. She was also ordered to pay £200 costs.
The council's executive board member for housing and public protection Hugh Evans said: "Anyone caught driving illegally faces a stiff penalty, as this case shows."
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