Taxi Driver Online

Another Glasgow application from last week. Don't suppose the refusal is that surprising, but maybe slightly more interesting in the licensing sense is the convener's remarks about dormant badges, effectively:


Glasgow drink driver who hit parked cars while five times over limit has private hire bid rejected

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glas ... t-28509770

Glasgow's licensing committee turned down Chham Chhetri’s application following an objection from Police Scotland over an incident in 2014.

A man who was five times over the drink-drive limit when he hit two parked cars has lost his bid to work as a private hire driver.

Police Scotland objected to Chham Chhetri’s application for a private hire car driver’s licence due to an incident in 2014.

An officer told councillors the applicant had driven “without due care and attention” and “failed to stop and provide his details”.

They also heard how the conviction was “ordinarily spent”, but had been “deemed relevant” to the licensing committee.

The officer added Mr Chhetri, who did not declare the conviction on his application form, had been disqualified from driving for two years and fined a total of £500 after he was convicted of three charges.

He was found to have “consumed so much alcohol that the proportion of it in his breath was 110mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, exceeding the prescribed limit of 22mg of alcohol”, the committee heard.

Cllr Alex Wilson, SNP, who chairs the licensing committee, said: “Obviously this happened in 2014, which is a number of years ago, however it is still a serious nature, which is why Police Scotland have drawn this to our attention when looking to grant you a licence.

“Why did you not report this on your application form?”

Mr Chhetri didn’t answer why he hadn’t completed the form, however he claimed he had changed his lifestyle since the incident.

The applicant, who said he worked as a chef, said his private hire driver plan was “for my future” and he didn’t have a car ready to use.

Cllr Wilson said: “If we award you a licence today, you have to use it straightaway, you can’t just get your licence, put it in a drawer then use it in a year’s time."

“After three months of not using it, you have to hand it back.”

The committee decided to refuse his application.

It's that Glasgow quirk again - unused badges pretty commonplace elsewhere under the Scottish legislation, and I don't think any other councils are really that bothered about dormant badges, or perhaps it's more a case of such a rule being effectively unenforceable. If I didn't use my badge for six months, say, I'm not sure how Fife Council would ever get to know about it, and they've certainly never asked for any information that might suggest to them that it's not being used (on a renewal application, say).

So to that extent, I'm not sure if Glasgow's policy would survive a legal challenge

Another slightly ridiculous aspect to the convener's statement (quite apart from the fact that any PHD might intend renting a car or working split bag rather than being an owner-driver), is that there's a quota on PHV licences in Glasgow, therefore...

(And, for what it's worth for those south of the border, he was 3.14 over the alcohol limit in England, not 5 times over, and that's because of the lower limit up here

And that must be the first time I've thought about the value of pi (π) for a couple of decades, I'd guess )

Why do you think FFS?

_________________
IDFIMH