Taxi Driver Online

Well this guy's CV is a bit messy - makes the Chorley chap seem quite sensible

Taxi driver fell asleep at the wheel while driving children to school

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/burton ... ol-2471388

He was also involved in a crash which injured three

A private hire driver who was involved in a car crash which injured three people and also fell asleep at the wheel while driving young people to school has been hauled to court.

Ali Hassan, of Patch Close, Burton, was found guilty of failing to declare his taxi driver licence history when applying to South Derbyshire and North West Leicestershire district councils.

Hassan's criminal history was only spotted thanks to an eagle-eyed licensing officer at North West Leicestershire District Council.

The officer had formerly worked at East Staffordshire Borough Council's licensing department which had previously revoked Hassan's licence for falling asleep while driving young people as part of a school taxi contract.

The 35-year-old also failed to disclose a speeding offence which resulted in six penalty points on his licence while he was licensed with East Staffordshire council.

His undisclosed history also included a car crash in which three people sustained injuries and for which Hassan received four penalty points.

He was found guilty of fraud by false representation at Leicester Magistrates' Court and has been given a 12-month community order for failing to disclose his licence history.

Working in partnership, South Derbyshire District Council and North West Leicestershire District Council each presented evidence in court against Hassan.

The court heard that a North West Leicestershire District Council licensing officer, who previously worked at the borough council, spotted Hassan submitting documents in support of his licensing application and later discovered, that on his application form, he had failed to disclose his licence history with the borough council.

Hassan was also previously licensed with South Derbyshire District Council which confirmed that Hassan had similarly failed to declare his licensing history.

He had also failed to disclose, on his North West Leicestershire and South Derbyshire District Council private hire driver applications, that he had his licence revoked twice while licensed with East Staffordshire Borough Council.

This was for the speeding offence, the car crash where he received four penalty points after three people suffered injuries, and for falling asleep at the wheel while driving children.

Hassan was found guilty and handed a 12-month community order with a requirement of 100 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £85, and, due to his limited means, a contribution towards costs of £500.

If the community order is breached, he will be brought back to court and could face prison.

Councillor Martyn Ford, leader of South Derbyshire District Council, said: "Ensuring that private hire vehicles are properly licensed is part of our commitment to upholding safety standards in South Derbyshire.

"Private hire operators have a duty of care to their customers and must work with us to ensure they are meeting this requirement.

"Working alongside North West Leicestershire District Council is a superb example of our continued partnership as we strive to tackle such behaviour."

Councillor Alison Smith, deputy leader and portfolio holder for community services at North West Leicestershire District Council, said: "This case highlights how seriously we take passenger safety and that we will always scrutinise licensing applications fully to ensure the public are not put in danger.

“It is also a great example of partnership working where sharing information with colleagues at both the borough council and South Derbyshire District Council has resulted in a driver with a poor track record being denied a licence and having a day in court.

"This sends a strong message that we welcome honest and professional taxi drivers in North West Leicestershire, but will not tolerate false submissions on licencing applications."

Is it fair to assume the trade is much better off with this nutter out of the trade.

It also begs the question why the LO had to rely on his knowledge rather than the print out from the DSA, and the penalty points checks.

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IDFIMH

Maybe that's how it did happen, or at least partly so. I mean, the previous article says that it was just chance that the LO happened to work for the two local authorities in question, then says it was a 'great example of partnership working' between the councils

Now more spin by the looks of it - somehow doubt it was *that* case that led to the new national register as per the headline below, although to be fair it's not clear whether that's the council's take on it, or maybe just the newspaper's.

But other than deconstructing the politics of it all, not really much to see here - mainly a rehash of the article above, plus that another LA has signed up to the national register, which like the safeguarding training isn't really particularly newsworthy once you've read of a few dozen


Case of taxi driver falling asleep at the wheel leads to new national register

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/burton ... er-2930299

Council signs up to countrywide database and will share information

New measures are now in place to make it harder for taxi drivers who have had their licences revoked to submit applications to work in other parts of the country.

North West Leicestershire District Council has become one of the first local authorities in the country to sign up to a new licensing register designed to improve public safety and confidence in taxi drivers.

It comes after Burton taxi driver Ali Hassan thought he had escaped the watchful eye of council bosses when he applied for a licence in both North West Leicestershire and South Derbyshire.

He failed to state on his application that his licence had been revoked by East Staffordshire Borough Council for falling asleep while driving young people about as part of a school taxi contract.

Hassan also failed to disclose he had a speeding offence which resulted in him getting six penalty points on his licence while he was licensed with East Staffordshire council.

Fortunately, his failure to include the information on his application did not go unnoticed by an eagle-eyed licencing officer in North West Leicestershire, who, by chance, previously worked for East Staffordshire Borough Council and spotted the fraudulent paperwork.

Hassan was found guilty of fraud by false representation at Leicester Magistrates' Court in January, this year, and handed a 12-month community order, with a requirement that he complete 100 hours of unpaid work.

As a result of this case, the district council has signed up to the new National Register of Taxi and Private Hire Licence Revocations and Refusals – or NR3 for short.

It is designed to prevent drivers from submitting licence applications while failing to declare historical licence revocations in other parts of the country.

The new register will make the process of checking a driver's history in other area much easier and prevent anyone from successfully making false claims on their application for a licence as councils share details on a database.

Council signing up will update the register any time they revoke or refuse a licence.

Revoking a licence is only used in serious cases of incompetence, often when passengers are put in danger.

This information will then be available for all other authorities signed up to the scheme.

Councillor Andrew Woodman, portfolio holder for community services at the district council, said: "This is a sensible way of sharing information between licensing authorities to ensure passengers are being kept safe and that they can have confidence that their driver is both professional and competent.

"For law-abiding taxi drivers absolutely nothing changes – declaring your licence history has always been a requirement.

"It is only those that fraudulently submit inaccurate applications that need to worry.

"Safety will always be our priority as a licensing authority.

"The register also protects the integrity of all the excellent taxi drivers we have in the district who we believe will be rewarded by the confidence boost this will give to customers."

A private hire driver who was involved in a car crash which injured three people and also fell asleep at the wheel while driving young people to school has been hauled to court.

we used to have one here who was infamous for falling asleep at the wheel had a few bumps and scared a few schoolkids. but the council never did anything despite pleas from the parents

he's retired now though

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector