Taxi Driver Online

An odd one this


Hereford taxi driver who pestered lone woman for sex banned

https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/2314 ... ex-banned/

A SECRET hearing has been told that a taxi driver picked up a lone female outside a Hereford pub and pestered her for sex.

Deciding whether the driver, Mohammed Mashud Ahmed, was still a fit and proper person to be a taxi driver after the complaint, Herefordshire Council’s taxi and county transport officer panel met in a secret hearing.

There, the panel, made up of people from the council’s public protection, licensing and school transport teams, as well as an officer from West Mercia Police, decided that Mr Ahmed’s actions were “so serious and concerning as to public safety” that his licence should be taken off him.

A confidential decision document of the meeting just seen by the Hereford Times said the panel heard that the lone female had been drinking and got into the taxi, H359, outside Wetherspoon in Commercial Road at 11pm one evening.

But during the journey, the vulnerable passenger said they were a sex worker after being asked what she did for a living. After that, the driver “harassed her for sex” and on several occasions asked for her phone number and “requested her services”.

She repeatedly said no and CCTV footage backed up her complaint. The panel told the driver and his solicitor at the hearing in June that he “took advantage” of a lone female late at night.

He “persistently” asked for prices, and wanted to negotiate, saying that “he wanted her to provide discounted services that night either at her house or in the car”.

The panel said Mr Ahmed has responsibilities as a licensed driver to take her home safely as requested, but the passenger “had no choice” but to stop the journey short – leaving her to walk home along unlit country roads.

Revoking Mr Ahmed’s licence, the panel unanimously said he abused his trust – and “public safety took precedence over any financial loss”.

Mr Ahmed seemed to show remorse, the panel said, and his legal representative said his actions, which were a “great mistake”, would “bring great shame on the Asian community if this was to get out”.

Herefordshire Council did not reply when asked why decisions about public safety made by the panel must be secret.

Maybe they should ask Sussex

Or maybe it would be easy for the council to state the rules, but more difficult to rationalise them. I mean, if this person is such a menace, what purpose is served by protecting his identity?

And if the H359 stated in the article is his plate number, the anonymity thing is surely a bit of a pretence?

there was a similarish incident a few years back in Coventry when the driver asked to be paid with sexual services he ended up in jail so not surprised at the result

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

Well I'm not sure that quango has the legal powers to strip someone of their license.

They may well be able to make suggestions to those who do have the powers, but not sure they have it themselves.

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IDFIMH

Because they can, provided the licensing committee has delegated those powers.

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IDFIMH

I was assuming that this was the licensing committee, and that the 'panel' didn't actually exist in the way it's portrayed in the article, and that the non-councillors were simply official attendees. It's maybe just portrayed in this way by the journalist for public consumption via the local press. So technically it's not strictly correct, but it gets rid of the legalese and jargon, although there's more than a hint of sensationalism about the way it's reported.


By the same token, assumed that the 'confidential decision document' was simply the committee minutes. Had a look on the council's website, and no sign, but it seems to have a pretty bog standard licensing sub-committee to deal with these things. Maybe the minutes just haven't been uploaded to the website yet

https://councillors.herefordshire.gov.u ... spx?ID=330

Had another look around the council's website, and can't find anything concrete, so you may be right, and the newspaper's portrayal could be bang on, and it is indeed an unusual arrangement for quasi-judicial decision making.

And, while I'm no expert on stuff like this, strikes me as a very unusual arrangement, and a bit to secret squirrel-ish

Ooo, interesting back story to this one. This is from Hold the Front Page, which is a website aimed at UK journalists...

But this underlines the 'secret squirrel' dimension to all of this. Of course, there are two aspects to that.

First, the fact that the culprits in these cases tend not to be named. Second, while the basic facts are normally available publicly in licensing sub-committee minutes (or similar), in this particular case the document appears to have been leaked, and the composition and operation of the panel here seems even murkier than usual


Weekly thwarts council bid to keep sex pest cabbie’s name secret

https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2022 ... me-secret/

A weekly newspaper has thwarted a council’s attempt to keep secret the name of a disgraced taxi driver who pestered a vulnerable woman for sex.

The Hereford Times criticised Herefordshire Council after revealing it held a secret meeting to revoke the licence of Mohammed Mashud Ahmed.

The Times has now named Mr Ahmed after obtaining a confidential decision document of the meeting and questioned how many more similar cases have been kept from the public.

The document revealed details about the secret meeting of the council’s taxi and county transport officer panel, including how it heard Mr Ahmed “took advantage” of his passenger, who was a sex worker.

It stated he “harassed her for sex” and on several occasions asked for her phone number and “requested her services.

Mr Ahmed’s legal representative told the secret hearing it would “bring great shame on the Asian community if this was to get out” and described his client’s actions as “a great mistake”.

The panel said it was Mr Ahmed’s responsibility as a licensed driver to take his passenger home safely as requested, but she “had no choice” but to stop the journey short – leaving her to walk home along unlit country roads.

Times audience and content editor James Thomas told HTFP: “The documents from the meeting, marked as confidential by Herefordshire Council, were sent into us and it was shocking to see that a complaint like this was all dealt with behind closed doors.

“We asked Herefordshire Council more than a week ago for a comment about the secret meetings, which take place at least once a month, but it has not got back to us. We are continuing to push.

“This complaint was serious, nobody can argue the other way, with a taxi driver accused of pestering a vulnerable passenger for sex.

“The committee which has these secret meetings rightfully called the complaint ‘so serious and concerning as to public safety’ that it was left with no choice but to revoke his licence.

“You would think that the council would be keen to show the public that complaints are taken seriously and measures such as CCTV in cabs, which backed up the passenger’s account, were used to protect passengers.”

“The council’s own website only has two mentions of the secret panel, with one saying the meetings are held in private, with not even the decision documents published, to protect the identity of applicants – presumably those wanting to become a taxi driver.

“In our view though, that does not cover those accused of serious wrongdoing where they fail in their responsibility to ensure the safety of passengers and take them home. This woman was left in the countryside and faced a walk home along unlit roads with no pavements.

“The decision was made to publish because it’s obviously in the public interest. This is just one complaint upheld against a taxi driver in Herefordshire. How many more are there here in the county, or even across the country?”

A Herefordshire Council spokesperson told HTFP: “The council is sometimes required to make decisions concerning the fit and proper status of licensed drivers, which it does through a panel of expert officers including the police and safeguarding.

“This is in accordance with our Taxi Policy which can be found at Taxi and private hire licensing policy – Herefordshire Council .

“Under the council’s constitution, (4.2.64) no written statement, report or document will be made available for public inspection which contains confidential or otherwise exempt information.*

“The panel hears matters of a confidential nature under civil law, and in accordance with our constitution and our Taxi Policy, such papers are therefore only circulated to the driver. There is no necessity to publish these in the public domain, other than as a record of officer decision.”


Image: Hold the Front Page

If the police are so concerned then one has to wonder why criminal charges weren't laid against the driver.

Maybe they decided the secret committee was easier to deal with than a proper criminal court.

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IDFIMH