Taxi Driver Online

Three town cabbies lose their licences


THREE Bournemouth taxi drivers have been stripped of their licences and another has had it suspended for seven days.

The action was taken at a town hall licensing meeting, where councillors were asked to consider whether four drivers could still be considered “fit and proper persons” to hold a licence.

Clive Johns, who has held a Bournemouth private hire vehicle licence for eight years, had it revoked after councillors heard he picked up two passengers in Wimborne. The passengers were mystery customers employed by East Dorset District Council to ensure that unlicensed public carriage vehicles do not operate in their area.

When his case was heard at Bournemouth Magistrates Court, Mr Johns pleaded guilty and was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay court costs of £2853.91.

Mohammad Rostamy, who has been a licensed private hire driver with Bournemouth council since May 2007, had his licence revoked after councillors heard he had been convicted at Poole Magistrates Court of common assault.

And Bill Leung lost both his Hackney and private hire licences after the board heard how he had been arrested in relation to an allegation of common assault on a passenger. He was not charged in connection with this incident but Christchurch Borough Council decided to revoke his Hackney licence – a decision upheld by the courts. The board was also told that Mr Leung had previously been suspended for seven days for his part in an “unseemly argument” at Bournemouth Railway Station.

The final driver to be disciplined by the board was Ismail Abdullah, who was recently convicted for acting as a Hackney carriage without the relevant licence.

Councillors were told that Mr Abdullah picked up mystery customers without a pre-booking – an offence for a private hire vehicle driver.

All the drivers are entitled to appeal against Bournemouth council’s decisions.

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

Councils are getting pretty tough now, as we on TDO already know so be warned.

Regards

JD

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