Taxi Driver Online

We had a situation a couple of months ago whereby one of our vehicles was inadvertently used with an expired Council plate. I know it shouldn't happen but it did. The car was spotted on one of our taxi ranks by our enforcement office. As soon as we were made aware of the expired plate the vehicle was immediately taken off the road. Now obviously we know that we were in the wrong and we accept this. However I have just had a call from the enforcement officer to make an appointment to come and interview my wife under caution. The cars are in the name of the limited company but it is her name on the vehicle license. The enforcement officer has said that he will be writing down the questions and the answers in his note book and my wife will be asked to sign this.
My questions are,
1, Does she have to answer any questions?
2, If she answers any questions, is she likely to incriminate herself?
3, Would she be entitled to a copy of PACE before the interview even though this is a council interview?
4, Should she have a legal representative?

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Grandad,

1 no 2 yes 3 possibly 4 yes 5 sign nothing. I'd tend to ask him what he's doing about the out-of-towners who you are constantly telling us about...under caution.

In all fairness this issue does need investigating, so one can't castigate the council for acting.

In relation to the questions.

1. Depends what the questions are. If they are name etc then it would be daft not too. If she is asked if she was aware the vehicle was running unlicensed, then she should answer no, as she wasn't. If she is asked who's fault it is it wasn't licensed then she should say I'm not sure. Generally it's the follow up question(s) that is/are more awkward.
2. Not sure there is much more that need incriminating, the vehicle was unlicensed, she is (allegedly) legally responsible to ensure it's licensed.
3. Yes, and I would also ask for the council 'enforcement' policy.
4. I think so. Money well spent.

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IDFIMH

I have already explained to the council how the error occurred and it was my job to ensure that the vehicles were tested and plated on time. so it was my fault. I have also explained to the council what procedures we have put in place to make sure that it can't happen again.
However the vehicle is not in my name and I wasn't driving it. I'm not sure what else my wife can add because she is not involved with the vehicle side of the business.

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Grandad,

In that case I'd refer the Rt.Hon. Gentleman to the reply given earlier to question 1. Say nothing.

Well they have all the evidence they need to prosecute, so I would answer any questions they have, I don't think she can make it any worse? I wouldn't mention pace, they should say she's being interviewed under pace, and I wouldn't take a legal with me, let's look at what they can do, they can interview and see that you have put in place steps so it does not happen again, and just give a warning, which seems the sensible thing in this case, if you take a lawyer they may feel pressured to act,and anyway there's not a lot he can do. The worst thing that can happen is they may prosecute her, and the max they can give is a £2500 fine or 6 months in prison, which I have never seen, so there's nothing to worry about, you may want to cover yourself in case they decide to revoke her licenses, this is easily done just transfer them into your name before the interview.

But they need to hear what the registered owner says.

Look we all make mistakes, even me, this isn't a case of me pointing my finger, far from it, but the council will have set procedure (i.e. their enforcement policy) and if they don't follow it they are in trouble.

Say, for example, they don't question the registered owner, and they just go for you. If I was representing you I would say, if it got to court, sorry gov but on reflection looking at the law it wasn't my clients responsibility and he is not at fault.

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IDFIMH

The registered owner is the company.

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Grandad,

Should be the directors in the dock then!

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

No, the licence holder is responsible for relicencing. The directors could I suppose be done for causing or permitting it to be used whilst unlicenced as could the driver. Here's where a daily walk-round check like psv operators have to have would be of benefit.

But then the company really ought to carry out a check too. There's a good chance the company could have all its licences suspended pending an investigation, and once the Traffic Commissioner hears of it, if Grandad has psv discs too there could be a Public Inquiry! VOSA visits to check maintenance records... But surely all will be in order .

We do have a daily check sheet. Unfortunately at the time the vehicle plate and tax were not part of the checks, yes we know that now. These have been added to the check sheet now, which is one of the changes we have made to ensure that it can't happen again.

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Grandad,

The psv side of the business is separate from the taxi/private hire in that I am not a director of the taxi/private hire business and the psv business is a partnership between me and the psv license holder, and yes all the maintenance records are up to date. The garage that do the checks provide us with a wall chart with the dates of the inspections for the year and they remind us to book the vehicles in at least a week before the checks are due.

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Grandad,

Id guess the LA could suspend all plates subject to a hearing

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

When you license the vehicle it will be in whose name it is licensed.

If it's a company they should ask for the company directors.

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IDFIMH