Taxi Driver Online

This is one of these news articles based simply on a tweet by police (in this case Wiltshire Special Ops), so there's not a lot to the article, and also a large element of repetition.


Wiltshire taxi driver to appear in court after driving whilst banned

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/new ... st-banned/

A Wiltshire taxi driver saw his vehicle seized after he was caught driving his vehicle despite being a disqualified driver.

The taxi was spotted in Larkhill on Saturday, February 4, not long after 1.30pm by Wiltshire Police’s roads policing unit.

A tweet from the specialist operations team’s account, @WiltsSpecOps, said: “RPU are seizing this taxi from Larkhill after checks revealed the driver is disqualified from driving.

“To think they charge the public to drive them around! Well not any more, vehicle seized and driver reported to court.”

The driver was reported following the seizure of his Vauxhall Zafira Tourer by the police.

A Wiltshire Police spokesperson said on Saturday: “We stopped a Vauxhall Zafira Tourer in Larkhill shortly after 1.30pm today.

“The driver was found to be a disqualified driver. The vehicle was seized and the driver reported for driving whilst disqualified.”


Image: Twitter/Wiltshire Police

This is the big version of the photo, although it doesn't seem to change the resolution much, so no easier to read the information on the plate, apart from the number:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FoIRwImWIAA ... name=large

But not sure why they blank the registration number, but not the council plate, because it's easy enough to get the registration number via the council's online register:

https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/media/1133 ... 1438500000

Funny, though (and useful for the people involved above in terms of anonymity) that the HC register includes the vehicle details, but not the proprietor's name, while the PHV register includes the proprietor's name, but not the vehicle details

https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/media/1132 ... 9721330000

Who is 'they'?

Are the police saying cabbies driving whilst banned is quite common?

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IDFIMH

Actually, re the licensing registers in the links above, it's the HC vehicle register, but the PH driver register, hence why the former includes vehicles rather than names, and vice versa.

But you get the impression from the council's licensing page containing the links that the HC and PH registers are like for like, so looks like someone's made a booboo

The links are near the bottom of the page here, under the heading Public Register:

https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/licences-permits-transport

very misleading because there is no suggestion that the driver was actually working.

Sounds to me like they were tempted to use the car thinking police wouldn't be about.

The other question is if the driver is disqualified should the vehicle still have a plate ? I am assuming driver was also the owner here.

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

Edders, I suppose it's the old conundrum as regards whether the likes of a drunk driving offence (say) disqualifies a person from holding a badge and a plate.

There's certainly cases of disqualified drivers being able to keep their plate, I'm quite sure.

Also, to be fair to Wilts Police, they didn't actually say that the driver was an ex-badge holder, although the paper seemed to assume they were. Whoever was driving may never have held a badge.

Which in turn maybe explains Sussex's point - maybe the 'they' was an allusion to the trade more generally because the proprietor had allowed a disqualified driver to use the car. Or something like that.

Or maybe the driver identified as gender non-binary, in which case to refer to them as him or her would be some sort of hate crime

But I suppose the most obvious assumptions would maybe turn out to be the correct ones - the driver had lost his badge, but kept his plate, therefore...

On the other hand, there's little definite information except that the driver was disqualified, and that it looks like a plated vehicle. It may have been taken without the owners' consent, or the plates may be fake, or expired, or whatever

Or the driver was disqualified but had never informed the council, therefore...

And, of course, police may have been tipped off about whatever precisely was amiss

Indeed.

So they police saying “To think they charge the public to drive them around! Well not anymore, vehicle seized and driver reported to court” is their equivalent of clickbait.

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IDFIMH

Well some clarification here. Doesn't seem to have been working at the time, and was taking a 'friend' to the shops

And nothing to suggest the vehicle wasn't legitimately plated. But the stuff about it being a 'company vehicle' which needed to be parked at his house because of parking problems at the taxi office sounds, er, intriguing

I mean, who was the car plated to? Presumably to the business that runs the office. Does he have a stake in that business? His relationship to the business must be pretty close if one of that business's cars was parked up outside his house while he was a disqualified driver


Salisbury: Disqualified taxi driver banned for driving friend to shop

https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news ... iend-shop/

Richard Coulson, 64, drove a company-owned Vauxhall Zafira without a valid driving license and with no insurance.

The taxi had been parked outside his home because the company "had problems" parking cars at the office.

Coulson, of Devereux Road in Amesbury, decided to use the car to drive his friend three miles to the shops in Larkhill when he was stopped by police.

Officers recognised Coulson as someone who had been disqualified and he admitted at the roadside that he had been driving illegally.

Coulson appeared in Salisbury Magistrate's Court on Friday, March 10, and the court heard that he had eight and a half weeks left of his six-month totting-up ban.

Bob Scott, defending, said Coulson "took a silly risk", adding: "He was not comfortable working but he did a friend a favour by taking them to the shop.

"The ban will have an effect on his ability to employ himself."

He is due to start the process of a knee replacement on March 24 and Mr Scott said: "In any respect, I don't think he'll be driving any time soon."

Coulson pleaded guilty to the two motoring offences, was ordered to pay £533 and was banned from driving for 12 more months.

I bet he's cheesed off now !

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