Minicab driver fined for refusing to pick up 71-year-old blind woman and guide dogA minicab driver who refused to pick up a blind 71-year-old woman and her guide dog, leaving them stranded, has been fined.
Samim Yakubi was worried the dog would urinate or leave hairs in his car after he arrived to pick them up in Wolverhampton on October 4 last year.
The 40-year-old was working for Wednesfield Radio Cars as a private hire driver when the incident happened. The company had already been told that Rita Nicholls would be travelling with her dog Charlie when Yakubi was dispatched.
Magistrates fined Yakubi £80 and ordered him to pay costs of £400 and a victim surcharge of £30 after he pleaded guilty to breaching the Equality Act.
City of Wolverhampton Council said Yakubi went to the arranged pick-up location in the city's Market Street but when he realised the customer had a dog he said there had been a mistake and left without them.
Yakubi was interviewed under caution by council officers. He then admitted he had lied to Nicholls, saying the actual reason he left was because he was worried the dog would urinate in his car and leave hair inside.
Steve Evans, from the council, said: "This was discrimination, plain and simple.
"I find it despicable that a private hire driver, who is there to provide a service to everyone, would abandon a blind passenger because he didn't want a guide dog in his car.
"Yakubi knew he was breaking the law, all drivers undergo disability awareness training, but he went ahead and did it anyway, motivated by purely selfish reasons."
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