Taxi Driver Online

24th October 2008

A TAXI firm boss has been cleared of breaking disability laws by refusing to carry a blind woman and her guide dog in one of his cars.

Mustak Bhuta, who runs Orlando Cars in Thynne Street, was accused of breaking the Disability Discrimination Act in what is thought to be the first prosecution of its kind.

Yesterday he accused the council of wasting public money as he walked free from Bolton Magistrates Court, where he had been supported by 17 of his taxi driver friends.

Had he been convicted, Mr Bhuta could have faced a fine of up to £1,000. Speaking outside court, he said: “What has happened here today should never have come to court at all. “I’m the joint chairman of the Bolton Private Hire Association and I go to panel hearings in the town hall. “The council should have dealt with it at consultory panel meetings. I wasn’t discriminating at all, and it’s a waste of public monies.”

The case is expected to cost taxpayers several thousand pounds. Bolton Magistrates heard that Toni Forrest, aged 40, who is blind, phoned Orlando Cars to book a taxi on October 30 last year.

She was accompanied by her four-year-old labrador guide dog William. Section 37A of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 makes it illegal for a private hire firm to refuse to carry assistance dogs. Mr Bhuta, aged 46, of Hawthorne Street, Deane, said he had advised Miss Forrest to use another taxi firm on October 30 because he had no cars available.

He said: “I told her that I had no drivers who could take care of the job, and to use another taxi firm.” Magistrates told him: “We don’t believe that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that it was the assistance dog and not the unavailability of cars which was the reason for refusal.”

its funny that isn't it just like round our way when all the cars sat on the taxi rank are "booked" when someone wants to go somewhere local in town

that having been said theres a couple of customers that hardly anyone is prepared to pick up and when they can't understand how every taxi firm in town is fully booked

They should be more careful. Sitting on a rank means available for hire. Refusing to take someone within the licensed area is a breach of conditions here, unless you have a pretty good reason to refuse.
Short hire wouldn't be accepted as a good reason.

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