Taxi Driver Online

Hi.

I'm a PH driver,

A few months ago i had a booking from hotel A to hotel b sent to my in car computer.

When i got to the hotel A, there was a man and a woman who flagged me down i assumed this as was my booking.

To make sure, as i had no phone number with the booking, i said, "are you such and such"? they replied are you taking us to hotel B. as this was where my booking was going i said yea get in.

To cut a long story short when i dropped them off it turned out they where undercover police doing a sting.

The council officers at the scene then rang my office to confim my last booked job and where told it was going from hotel A to hotel B for the same time i had picked up these officers.

I thought this would be end of it but they are auctally taking me to court.

I have proof that such job was booked from my job print out from that nite.

The officers involved storys dont match up, they've even lied about the time to make it look worse for me even tho from my job sheet you can see where i was at the time in queston and they've left out of there statements that they rang my office to confirm my last job.

My solicitor has told me i've got no defence to this charge, surely this cant be right? As far as i was concerned they where my pre booked job at no point in time did either officer say they was not such and such.

Can anybody offer any advice on this please?

No 1. Sack your solicitor; he sounds like a money grabbing w*nker!!!

No 2. Get a good solicitor, hungry for success.

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

You had a booking to go from A to B at a certain time.

You took a customer from A to B at that time.

What has your operator got to say about this?

If you didn't do what you are being charged with, then plead not guilty.

_________________
IDFIMH

Operator has confirmed all the above, provided council with computer print out of my jobs and will provide statement or appear in court.

I've pleaded not guilty.

Since then ive spoken to my barrister hired by solicitor and it was he and not my solicitor as i put in my first post, that recommend i plead not guilty based on this-

Unfortunately the offence created by s.45 is one of strict liability, without any requirement for knowledge or intention on the part of the defendant, the illegal act being sufficient to constitute the crime. So the fact that PH DRIVER picked up passengers who had not pre-booked is sufficient to make him guilty of the offence – despite the fact that he thought he was picking up pre-booked passengers.

Where an offence is of strict liability, a defendant may claim that he did not know of a fact that made his actions an offence. But this is irrelevant, even if the mistake was honestly and reasonably made. For example, in the case of Howells [1977] QB 614 it was held that an honest and reasonable belief that a firearm was an antique, and therefore exempt from the Firearms Act 1968, was no defence.

What this means is that even if the court were to accept in full PH DRIVERS account of what happened that evening it would still have to convict him of the offence.

On the facts before me PH DRIVER has no defence to either of these charges. This will no doubt come as a great disappointment to PH DRIVER and be seen as very unfair based on what PH DRIVER tells us in his statement.


What is the best course of action to minimise the penalty imposed on PH DRIVER and seek to prevent the loss of his licence? First, it is with regret that I say PH DRIVER should enter a guilty plea to both charges as he admits the facts and has no defence. This will attract a discount and the guilty pleas will have been entered at the earliest opportunity; as soon as PH DRIVER was aware of the strict liability nature of the offences.

Based on the above am i being foolish fighting this and pleading no guilty?
i think it is going to cost me a fair few thousand trying to fight this is it worth it?

should i try and find a new legal team?

also there are other Ph drivers in my area that this has happend to in the same way and have been found not guilty.
i even found one such case on this site -

http://taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14939

so thats gives me some doubts about what im being told.

whats are peoples views on this please?

What is the charge, verbatim, on the summons?

What evidence has been offered in response to your not guilty plea?

When is your court date?

Can you scan and post the paperwork on here after first removing identification.

Charge 1: plying for hire without a licence

charge 2: driving with no insurance

all the officers involved i think there was 7 in total have made statements.

i've not even been asked for a statement as yet nor has my controller who took the the booking.

pre trial hearing is in two weeks and trial is booked in for 7 weeks time.

i dont have access to scanner im afraid.

something seems a bit odd about this,

does the computer system have the original details ie. the the phone number of the call, maybe get that incoming phone number

Could he plead guilty under extreme mitigating circumstances, IE you where framed, and make a full statement to the court along with his boss as a witness
By pleading guilty you will have the opportunity to give the court the full facts yes you took the 2 punters from A to B as that's the booking you where told to go and collect
as you say you have not made a statement, try to stay out of the bills way no statement it could be thrown out
If you have to make one take a witness with you your boss

i dont know the ins and out of the law but this to me appears to be entrapment / honey trap ?

You asked them if they had booked (if they were Mr A etc) and they illegally impersonated your booked passengers in order to catch you out by the sounds of it ?

Like i say i'm no expert but it certainly sounds fishy


Best of luck with it

its on the computer as a witheld number.

If the number was withheld I would ask to see a copy of the phone records from the 2 you picked up, doing this would see the case dropped I bet, ask your solicitor to obtain them.
even though the number was withheld there phone records will show the number dialed

How did they know you were going to Hotel B ?

did you say " are you mr and mrs x and are you going to hotel B"

or did you say "are you mr and mrs x" and they did not confirm their name but rpeplied that they were going to hotel b

if its the latter how did they know you were going to hotel B ? Unless of course they had made the booking ?

surely they would only drop the case if it was proved the officers had set me up? and not just because i've requested the records?

I said,"are you such and such" and one of them repiled, "are you taking us to hotel B.

so someone wanted a taxi but thought i will put 141 before i dial the taxi number, strange, what about if the taxi company had to ring back etc etc, i have seen in taxi offices that have phone number readers that display up, no phone number show up, no taxi

something iffy about all this