Taxi Driver Online

Yorkshire Evening Post

October 18, 2007

Council in taxi licence dragnet.

COUNCIL chiefs have sanctioned a £13,000 dragnet to trawl through every taxi driver's licence in Kirklees in search of hidden convictions.

The massive probe will review all 2,149 private and Hackney Carriage licence holders. It has been prompted after checks revealed one forged licence and other drivers concealing the number of penalty points.

Coun Ken Sims, Tory member for regeneration, whose remit covers taxis, said: "We have had a handful of cases where what has been declared to the council has not been the case in reality. If, after this check, we find it's a bigger problem than we thought it was, then we will be looking to carry out regular checks. We have a duty of care to the public, after all, this is part of public transport.

"We have had one forgery of a licence and a handful of other cases over the years where not everything has been declared. Drivers can apply for duplicate licences and that can be where the confusion creeps in."

Coun Sims added: "We even had one man apply to become a driver who had been in jail for rape. It's not the sort of thing we want to see."

The DVLA licence checks will throw up any inconsistencies between the convictions declared by drivers and those which actually appear on their licences.

The move has left some taxi drivers angry that they may end up bearing the cost of annual checks.

Mohammed Akmal, chairman of North Kirklees Private Hire Association, said: "You go to any trade and you will find 99.9 per cent of workers are hard working and want to make an honest living, but there will always be a small minority of people who abuse the system and I do not think it's fair to tar all taxi drivers with the same brush.

"Having to pay extra for these checks is something I do not agree with. It's just an extra burden on the taxi driver."

Council chiefs met in Dewsbury to agree the licence checks this week.

A report to the council proposes passing the cost of future checks onto taxi drivers with a levy of around £6 per driver, to be taken when they apply or renew their licences.
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Now what the heck is the enhanced CRB check for then

If I remember rightly this lot didn't use the CRB procedure.

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IDFIMH

Reading through the statement I think it is about false driving license info i.e. penalty points/driving convictions etc but the crb checks can be foiled by identity swapping i.e. the applicant whose details are supplied is not the actual applicant but another friend/family member unless the crb forms are filled out in the presence of a council employee a practise adopted by some councils