Taxi Driver Online

South Wales Echo

October 10, 2006, Tuesday

HEADLINE: Fake immigration taxi driver broke drink-drive limit

BYLINE: Lisa Jones South Wales Echo

A taxi driver caught drink-driving with a passenger in the back of his cab has been jailed for six months.

Tariq Mahmood Malik, 50, was more than one-and-a-half times over the legal drink-drive limit when he was stopped by police for having a faulty headlight on his taxi.

Newport Crown Court heard he was asked to take a roadside breath test, which proved positive.

John Lloyd, prosecuting, told the court Malik, of Appledore Road, Gabalfa, Cardiff, had two previous drink-driving convictions, dating back to 1996.

'He was substantially over the limit,' he said.

In March, Malik received a two-year jail sentence, suspended for two years, from the same judge after pleading guilty to 12 counts of assisting unlawful immigration. Working as a manager at Seasons Holidays call centre in Dominions Arcade, Cardiff, he made up job vacancies so his family and friends in Pakistan could apply for work permits.

Leighton Hughes, defending, said Malik had not intended to work that night in August when he was stopped on Newport Road, but had been out drinking with friends.

'It was extraordinarily stupid for a man of 50 years of age. 'The inevitable consequences are the loss of his livelihood and the loss of him ever working in that capacity again.'

Mr Hughes said Malik had an 'issue in relation to the amount of alcohol he's drinking and his attitude to drink driving.'

'Custody would be a significant hardship. While right thinking members of the public and fare-paying passengers of Cardiff taxis might expect a drink-driving taxi driver might lose his liberty, a community order would be a realistic option.'

But Judge David Wynn Morgan didn't agree.

He told Malik: 'I'm disappointed to see you here so soon.

'A significant feature is that you were driving with excess alcohol at a time when you were carrying a fare- paying passenger.' He told Malik his two-year suspended sentence still stood, as he had pleaded guilty to an entirely separate offence.

Malik was also banned from driving for three years.
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How on earth did he keep, or get, his license following the immigration issue?

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IDFIMH