Taxi Driver Online

14 Jan 2008

Three cabbies fined for licence breaches

Three Northampton minicab drivers have been prosecuted and fined for
illegally touting for business.

Magistrates ordered Makbul Ahmed, Gulam Rabbani and Peter Greaves to
pay a total of £1,800 plus court costs after they were caught breaching the
terms of their licences.

According to licensing authority Northampton Borough Council regulations,
only Hackney carriages are authorised to pick up passengers from the
street and private hire drivers invalidate their insurance if they accept
fares not booked in advance.

Sky Taxis worker Ahmed, aged 49, of The Headlands, Northampton, was
caught plying for hire in Wellingborough Road last September and was
fined £200.

He was also fined £400 for driving without insurance, had six penalty
points added to his driving licence and was ordered to pay £400 towards
prosecution costs.

Rabbani, a 37-year-old Bounds Taxi driver, of Bakewell Court,
Lumbertubs, Northampton, was fined £400 for plying for hire in The
Drapery in September, driving without insurance and not displaying his
private hire badge. He was also given six penalty points and ordered to
pay £200 costs.

Mayfair Taxi driver Greaves, aged 54, of Martins Lane, Hardingstone, was
given six penalty points and fined £800 for the same offences and charged
£200 costs.

All three drivers also risk being stripped of their private hire licences.

Martin Kean, secretary of the Northampton Private Hire Association, said:
"When the vast majority of private hire drivers are acting legally, it is
unfortunate when the minority bring the rest down."

Source: Northampton Chronicle & Echo

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