Taxi Driver Online

Taxi drivers caught illegally taking fares in Old Trafford

https://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk/n ... -trafford/

Two Hackney Carriage drivers have been fined after being caught in the act of illegally picking up undercover council officers following sporting events in Trafford.

Both Aamar Shahzad Ahmed, 47, and Khalid Mahmood, 60, pleaded guilty to illegally plying for hire and use of a motor vehicle without insurance at Manchester Magistrates' Court on April 2.

On July 25 last year, Trafford Council’s Licensing Enforcement officers were on patrol as England played India at Emirates Old Trafford cricket ground.

Just after 10am on Talbot Road, the officers spotted a white Hackney Carriage, licensed by Manchester City Council, with its taxi sign illuminated.

When officers spoke with the driver, Ahmed, he agreed to take them into the city centre.

However, as they set off, officers identified themselves and asked him to pull over, with Ahmed, of Esmond Road, Manchester, later claiming that picking the officers up had been ‘an impulse thing’.

Just weeks later, on August 9, council officers were out again near the Old Trafford football stadium for Manchester United’s pre-season game with Fiorentina.

Just after 12pm, outside the Bishop’s Blaize pub near the stadium, officers approached a black Hackney Carriage licensed by Manchester City Council.

When officers spoke with the driver, Mahmood, of Hembury Avenue, Burnley, he agreed to take them into the city centre.

After getting in and identifying themselves, the officers asked Mahmood to pull over, with the driver asking for a warning only as he admitted he had made a mistake.

Ahmed pleaded guilty to unlicensed ply for hire, driving without proper insurance and failure to wear his driver identification badge.

He was fined £346, with a surcharge of £138 and a £100 contribution to costs as well as eight points on his driving licence.

Mahmood was fined £400, with a surcharge of £160 and £100 contribution to costs as well as eight points on his driving licence after pleading guilty to unlicensed ply for hire and driving without proper insurance

A spokesperson for Trafford Council said: “This is another example of a wider problem on matchdays with drivers from other areas illegally looking for fares.

“Only Hackney Carriages licensed by Trafford Council are permitted to pick up fares without a booking.

“Trafford’s Hackney Carriage drivers work hard to provide transport for those who need it in the borough. This type of behaviour puts public safety at risk and is illegal.”

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IDFIMH

we keep on hearing of vehicles getting caught here

is it just driver stupidity or are so many drivers getting away with it that they are flocking there and a few are getting caught ?

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

Put it another way, Edders - if every council had LOs on the ground like this, and prosecuted every errant driver through the criminal justice system, then the courts throughout the land would be full of them.

But that's what recent stuff on here in other threads has been all about - different councils take very different approaches to this sort of stuff

And even if LOs are on the ground for this kind of thing, I'd guess most instances of low-level kind of stuff would be dealt with via a slapped wrist, or at worst via the licensing process. But NOT via the criminal courts.

It's like the spotcheck stuff - in some council areas they probably never see LOs on the ground. In the likes of Fife, even if they catch you with a rooflight out or missing sticker, the plate is off and you're up in front of the licensing committee

If a vehicle/driver was caught illegally plying down here, normally they wouldn't be prosecuted if it was the first time.

Final warning, etc, but no revocation or court summons.

Which sort of confirms SW's point.

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IDFIMH

Well this is a completely wasted opportunity - the question as asked seems pertinent to the discussion on this thread. But the answer completely sidesteps the question. The answer, effectively, is yes a PHD *can* lose their licence if caught plying for hire.

But that's effectively assumed in the question, which is *will* a PHD lose his licence if caught plying for hire? Answer comes there none:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1999572224247800

And, can't be bothered looking at others, but there seems to be a pile of those videos, and they seem to be some kind of collaboration between the NPHTA/PHTM and Take Me

Which also shows a lot of the stupidity of the system. I visited Manchester a couple of years ago and quite honestly see a big city. How am I to know where the taxi licencing boundaries are? I noted a lot of Wolves car out and about.

Not a fan of pontificating.

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IDFIMH

And all this goes to show we need a national set of standards like we have in the bus industry.

But how do you equate the standards needed for London, and those needed for rural so and so end of nowhere areas?

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IDFIMH