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Bristol Evening Post
June 6, 2007 wednesday
Bristol Cabbie paid £7,000 for false papers
A Taxi driver who admitted trying to get a false passport in order to allow his family to remain in Britain has lost his fight to continue operating.
Mehmood Ahmed tried to acquire a British passport in the name of Hassan. He was given a nine-month jail term, suspended for 18 months and ordered to carry out 150 hours' unpaid work.
After conviction, Bristol City Council won a court order to revoke his hackney carriage licence. Ahmad, 32, appealed to get his licence restored but his bid was dismissed by a panel headed by the recorder, Mr David Lane, QC.
Kate Brunner, representing Bristol City Council, told the court Ahmed had paid £7,000 to a man in order to receive a false birth certificate.
She said he used the certificate to obtain a false driving licence and used both documents in order to apply for a British passport.
Ms Brunner said: "There are particular concerns for people with offences of dishonesty to be driving members of the public around. Private hire allows for a great deal of dishonesty if the driver is so minded.
"It would be easy for a driver of a private hire cab to have his meter running already at the start of a journey, he could take a longer route and he could very easily take money from members of the public."
It was these concerns, Ms Brunner said, that prompted the council to decide Ahmad was not fit to hold a hackney carriage licence.
David Martin, representing Ahmed, told the court the 32-year-old, of Lakeside, in Fishponds, had been born in Pakistan and came to live in the UK in November 1999.
Ahmed told the court he claimed asylum when he arrived in the country because his life wasn't safe in Pakistan. He said that, after receiving benefits and living in London, in 2000 he came to Bristol and started working as a taxi driver in 2004. Ahmad said, however, that his asylum application was rejected and his benefits were stopped.
Then, some two-and-a-half years ago, he successfully applied for a private hire taxi licence and had worked in that field since, without a single complaint against his name.
He told the court: "I began a relationship with my partner while I was working as a private hire driver. Our first child was born in September 2006 and I borrowed £7,000 for a false birth certificate. I did it because I wanted a passport for my family's future."
Ahmed, who pleaded guilty in November to attempting to obtain property by deception and using a false instrument was ordered to pay £1,415.70 court costs.
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