'Ticket wardens are targeting my cars'A private-hire firm owner who lost his private hire driver's licence after assaulting a parking warden claims his cabbies are being targeted by over-zealous ticketing.
Businessman Muz Hussain, who was also ordered to pay £1,625 in costs and a fine, agrees he lost his temper outside RoadRunners' new Horley office in Station Road back in June.
Muz Hussain, left, with assistant operations director Kevin RampersadBut the 40-year-old, whose firm also has a Redhill office, claims he was provoked after Reigate and Banstead Borough Council parking wardens, also known as civil enforcement officers (CEOs), targeted his drivers for special attention.
He told the Mirror: "They said I pushed him. I did not. But I was up his face saying, 'What the **** are you doing?' I gave him so much abuse you would not believe. I swore at him, I'm not denying that one.
"We were building our office in Horley and the builder's van was parked on the grass. One of our drivers was doing some plastering in the office and in the morning he was given a ticket – that was fair enough.
"But the builder's van was ignored. After three hours we think he found out it was our builder's van, and came back. "I said, 'Give it a rest, don't give him a ticket.' The driver was in his car – and that's where I lost it with him.
"I started swearing at him and giving him abuse basically, and I did give him abuse there's no doubt about it."
Mr Hussain pleaded guilty to assault by beating and using threatening and abusive language when he appeared before Redhill Magistrates' Court on October 24.
He lost his permit to operate as a private-hire driver and was fined £850 plus £775 costs.
"We probably serve more public than they ever do in their lives," he said. "I want them [parking wardens] to have a bit of decency. Say please, you are parked there, move on."
RoadRunners driver Darren Rycroft, 38, from Bookham, has been a cabbie for 10 years. He too said his firm's drivers were being victimised.
A spokesman for Reigate and Banstead Borough Council said: "A CEO will always ask a driver to move their car before issuing a penalty charge notice.
"Where a driver refuses to move, or is reluctant to do so when asked, the CEO will go ahead and issue a penalty charge notice as they are authorised to do.
"The further allegations made by Mr Hussein are case specific and if he wished to raise them it was open to him to do so in court or through the council's licensing process."
http://www.thisissurreytoday.co.uk/Tick ... story.html
Login
Register
FAQ
