Taxi Driver Online

1 Mar 2008

Immigrant cabbies' criminal checks

IMMIGRANT taxi drivers are set to have criminal convictions from their
home country checked for the first time.

The new rules for cabbies in Wycombe are essential to protect the public,
councillors asked to approve the new scheme are told.

Drivers will have to provide a Certificate of Good Conduct' from their
country of origin as part of a new policy on district cabs.

This certificate - recommended by the Department for Transport - is
authenticated by the driver's embassy.

A report to Wycombe District Council members, set to give the final say
on the plan, states: "Although Criminal Records Bureau checks are carried
out on all applicants, these checks can only verify convictions or cautions
passed within the United Kingdom.

"So there is no knowledge of any possible criminal history from elsewhere."

It was therefore "essential in the interests of public safety that thorough
checks are carried out".

This was all the more important given the "vulnerable" status of some
passengers such as children, the disabled and the elderly.

The council's regulatory and appeal committee will be asked to approve
the policy on March 3.

The council is also taking moves to remove its limit of 50 taxis that can be
hailed in the street.

Once sufficient taxi rank space is found, the plan will go ahead.

Source: Bucks Free Press
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That'll work.

'Hello Inspektor Takeabungovitch? Mr Iriana Rapeavitch speaking, here's £50, send me a Bosnian good character search. Please don't mention the genocide I took part in'

nice one

With idiots like this running the taxi industry, no wonder we get such a bad press.

_________________
if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

I applaud this initiative.

This was introduced by the Council In Crawley recently, following complaints from our local assn.

If you check out the DfT Best Practice Guidance you will see that this is recommended there along with 'right to work' checks on foreign applicants.

It's quite simple really, councils can only issue you a badge if they are satisfied that you are 'fit and proper'. How can they determine this if they DONT look into your /any criminal record in your home country?

I think you will find that this is going to grow slowly throughout the country as councils slowly catch up with what they SHOULD be doing.

_________________
Our safety is Paramount

I understand your way of thinking, but you have to remember that we are dealing with countries that are riddled with corruption.

On three separate occasions I had a conversation with two ladies from India and one guy from S. Africa and none of them new one another.

Anyway we got to talking about driving tests in their country, I enquired as to what kind of test took place blah blah blah. The bottom line is that it depended as to how big your bribe was as to whether you passed or not.

So when you look at some idiot out on the road and wonder as to how he passed his/her test, the chances are that they did not.

Going back to these certificates of good conduct, I am pretty sure that I read somewhere that the Police are not happy to accept them from people wishing to join the force. So what does that tell you? Corruption corruption corruption and they know it.

_________________
if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Your missing the point. Some of these individuals concerned have a background which is impossible to check.

The Peoples Republic of Walawoonga probably does'nt have Electricity, never mind a facility to keep records of criminal behaviour. Perhaps if the operators paid a decent wage, we would'nt have to add to our 60 Million population with these imports.

As a resident of The Peoples Republic of Walawoonga I must object to that statement, although if you promise to send me $10 I will accept that statement just so long as you dont want a receipt.

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Does it flood in the Walawoonga district of Carlisle?

you a hard man to deal with, okay $5

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I do agree with you about some background checks being quite impossible therefore a council which cannot satisfy themselves that an applicant is fit and proper cannot issue a badge in such circumstances.
( Maybe OK when the guy has been here for 5 unblemished years or so )

On the question of bribes that is why the documents must be verified in the Embassy in this country.

I'm not saying that the new and improved system is perfect ....just that it is a vast improvement on the No Check At All approach used by the vast majority of Local Govt's Finest

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Our safety is Paramount