"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!"
Court decides council was right to rule taxi driver was not a "fit and proper person"https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/18 ... er-person/A PRIVATE driver who was convicted of carrying passengers who had not pre-booked has lost his appeal against Bolton Council’s decision to revoke his licence.Salim Patel was caught in a crackdown on vehicles illegally plying for hire on August 20 2017 when his car was stopped on Rochdale Road, Manchester.
Bolton Crown Court heard how Patel initially claimed that his two Polish passengers were friends, but then admitted they were customers he was carrying to Blackley.
At the time Patel, aged 46, of Dijon Street, Bolton, was operating using a private hire licence issued by Rossendale Council.
And when he applied to Bolton Council for a private hire licence in July 2018 he failed to disclose that he was due to be tried for plying for hire and having no insurance. Insurance is void if private hire passengers have not pre-booked.
After he was convicted he declared having no insurance but failed to mention the plying for hire conviction and he subsequently lost an appeal against conviction.
Bolton Council’s licensing committee then revoked his licence January 18 last year on the basis that he was not a "fit and proper person" to hold one and Patel lost his appeal against their decision in a hearing at Bolton Magistrates' Court on December 2.
This week the married father-of-four further appealed to Bolton Crown Court claiming the circumstances of his conviction were unusual and so therefore the licensing committee should have made an exception to its policy of revoking licenses following conviction for offences such as having no insurance.
Patrick Williams, for the appellant Patel stated that the application form for a licence which Patel filled in did not make clear that he needed to declare pending court appearances. It has since been revised by Bolton Council.
And he stressed that Patel had felt pressured into taking the Polish men on their journey rather than actively plying for hire, therefore the licensing committee should have paid regard to the "unusual circumstances" of the conviction and suspended his licence rather than revoke it.
But Harriet Tighe, for Bolton Council, told appeal judge, Recorder Alexandra Simmonds and the two appeal justices sitting with her, that the assertion about being pressured had already been rejected at Patel's appeal against conviction.
And rejecting Patel's latest appeal, Recorder Simmonds told him: "There was nothing unusual about the facts of his conviction that means the council was wrong to revoke the appellant's licence.
"Numerous references provided on his behalf at his otherwise good character before and since do not alter our decision."
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