Broad Street bogus minicab driver receives suspended jail sentence Babu Elahi, 53, was caught with two passengers in his car after police operation
A bogus minicab driver has received a suspended jail sentence after being caught touting for fares in Broad Street during a police operation.
Babu Elahi, 53, was spotted in a VW Passat liveried with door stickers and bumper plates suggesting it was a licensed private hire vehicle.
Yet when police moved in to speak to the driver on October 17 last year he raced off - carrying two rear seat passengers.
Elahi, from Bevington Road in Aston , drove through no entry signs and broke the speed limit in a bid to escape a patrol car but was arrested when he pulled up outside Ladywood Police Station.
He initially claimed his ID badge was at home, but checks showed his Passat was not registered as a private hire car and the council license plate actually belonged to his brother.
In interview, unemployed Elahi claimed he had only ever driven a friend into Broad Street once, but Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras proved his Passat regularly cruised Broad Street on weekends.
He admitted dangerous driving, fraud by false representation, and driving without the relevant insurance when he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court.
He was given a four-year jail term, suspended for two years, ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work in the community, and banned from driving for 12 months.
PC Dave Humpherson leads a West Midlands Police campaign − codenamed Operation Amethyst − that sees a team of specially trained officers going undercover to pose as customers on the lookout for drivers breaking the rules.
Last year, up to 100 drivers were prosecuted and banned from the roads or given six penalty points, with fines approaching £2,000.
PC Humpherson said: “Most taxi drivers operate legally and are earning an honest living − but there are people falsely purporting to be taxi drivers in the hope of making some extra cash. And if anything untoward should happen it can be challenging to trace offenders as there’s no audit trail and no booking details or phone numbers to follow up.
“Passengers accepting lifts from private hire drivers plying for business aren’t insured in the event of being injured in an accident; only Hackney Carriage vehicles can take on-street fares and passengers can leave themselves vulnerable at the hands of bogus cabbies.
“As soon as people set foot in un-booked vehicles and take the journey, the insurance is nullified − and there are also some awful examples of people being overcharged. One of the worst I’ve seen was a man charged £25 for a two mile journey.”
source:
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/mi ... r-11009723
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