Taxi Driver Online

Kingston police swoop on illegal taxi touts

A late-night swoop on illegal taxis touting in Kingston has led to four arrests and £2,000 in unpaid fines. Operation Hide took place on Friday, May 22, mostly targeting minicabs which picked up revellers without a pre-booking or, on occasion, without a licence at all.

Plain clothed officers kept an eye on cabs, mostly outside nightclub Oceana, while 52 cars were pulled over in Penrhyn Road. Four drivers were arrested for taxi touting and one person was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving.

One vehicle was seized when the driver was unable to pay the on the spot fine from a previous taxi-touting conviction. Paul Riordan, business crime reduction manager at Kingston First, said the swoop “focuses drivers’ attention” on the risks of flouting the law.

He estimated that of the 15 to 20 cars waiting outside Oceana between 2.30am and 3.30am, the majority of them would be touting illegally because so few people pre-book.

He said steps had also been taken to reduce the temptation to get into an unlicensed cab, including adding night bus services and increasing the number of black cab licences in the borough.

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IDFIMH

The club has a marshalled Taxi rank, that was the last thing I heard.

What a good idea.

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IDFIMH

For who?

For the licensed drivers who want their own, and for the general public who at present are only being offered an illegal service.

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IDFIMH

I'm sure if they look hard enough or the council makes proper sensible provision for black cabs in the right place the public would find a legal ride home.

Are we talking about Kingston South London? if so don't they come under the same LO as central London, i.e 3 yrs of learning and thorough testing before granting of licenses?

Could always be the clientel in that area driving cabs away because of their behaviour as well, I know who I want in with me and who I don't and if it looks like trouble I don't pick it up because as we all know if it doesn't work the assholes way they then run along to the cops to get you done.

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

There's never been a limit on licenses for Kingston, it's a Yellow Suburban badge.

I know, I was just agreeing with the comment that the answer to all the illegal goings on is to offer the punters a legal service.

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IDFIMH

Well if it's not a capped area how come there's a shortage of cabs then?
that kinda blows your dereg march out of the water doesn't it Mark, if anyone can get a hack license in that area it must show that either it's not worth the investment, or out of area cars are being allowed to operate illegally, either way it shows that regulation doesn't cause a shortage of cabs if there's even such a thing there, so every opportunity is availabe in Kingston yet there's still problems.

I've no idea, but doesn't it blow your idea of an million cabs being licensed following delimitation, out of the window?

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IDFIMH

I think it depends on the area and the work situation available in that area tbh. Driving a taxi has always been seen as an option if there is nothing else around to do

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Yes it does in that area but not in

Cardiff,Mansfield and all the other swamped cities though does it.


Anyway, don't really matter, I'm leaving this all to you, you can have the unruely drunk and speed addict for customers, watch the last 10 minutes of a documentary called Egypt's 10 Greatest Secrets, it'll explain what is about to happen to the UK to you, or put another way, ppl bitching over the bin scraps they never wanted before, try and watch it if you can it'll help you understand why nothing will matter to much in the next 40 years.

Doom are you having a bad week or something you are truely living upto your name lately

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Every weeks a bad one Toots, I remember a better world luv, this one is nothing more than a prelude to the endgame for the UK, and for those that dgaf, thats do btw, it's like handling a wet eel trying to prevent it happening.


But yeah that was kinda how I got the name, I see things before others do and they can't keep up so they respond with ridicule, I always win though cos they repeat me 4-5 years on when they've caught up, and I'm also a bit of a Pied Piper, when I switched to hacks, 10 out of 20 drivers followed me over from the same office, including the one who gave me the nick, I don't worry about it though, it's another nick to go with the other 20 odd I've accumilated over the years, most of em are nice names and I think ppl give me em because they are comfortable with me, I am a right happy go lucky type by nature, it's just what I see right now is the emergence of complete liberty takers and unless someone fronts em up they will ride over everyone.