Taxi Driver Online

Henley: Taxi driver fined more than £700 following offences

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24744 ... -offences/

A private hire taxi driver has been ordered to pay more than £700 after pleading guilty to illegally accepting passengers without a booking during Henley Regatta.

Mr Shabuddin Parvas, 54, of Cressingham Road, Reading, pleaded guilty at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Friday, November 15 to unlawfully plying for hire in Henley and failing to wear his driver’s badge.

Plying for hire is a term that describes the act of a vehicle stopping to pick up a passenger who has not pre-booked the journey.

The court heard that on July 5 licensing officers from South Oxfordshire District Council carried out checks to ensure that taxis were operating legally during the Henley Regatta.

Mr Parvas was observed in a prominent location on Thameside, near the main pedestrian route between the Regatta site and Henley train station.

When an undercover officer approached the vehicle, Mr Parvas agreed to transport six passengers to Reading train station without a pre-booking.

As a private hire driver licensed by Reading Borough Council, Mr Parvas is not authorised to accept passengers without a booking as that amounts to plying for hire which can only be carried out in the district that you are licensed.

Outside of Reading Borough, he is restricted to transporting pre-booked passengers.

According to South Oxfordshire District Council, Henley Regatta is persistently targeted by unlicensed drivers from outside the area and 16 have been successfully prosecuted for operating illegally over the last three years, with further court hearings listed over the next few months.

By plying for hire in South Oxfordshire, Mr Parvas was operating illegally meaning that neither he nor the vehicle he was driving would have gone through the vigorous checks carried out by South Oxfordshire District Council.

These checks are to ensure drivers are fit and proper and their vehicles are safe and properly tested.

Offering rides illegally undermines public safety as those journeys would be untraceable and often at inflated fares.

It also undermines and steals trade from properly vetted and licensed drivers operating within their designated areas.

Taking mitigating factors and an early guilty plea into account, Magistrates fined Mr Parvas £145 and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £58 and £500 in prosecution costs.

Councillor Georgina Heritage, cabinet member for communities at South Oxfordshire District Council said: “Drivers operating without proper authorisation put passengers and other road users at risk and deprive properly licensed operators of legitimate work.

"We will continue to carry out checks to stop those who are operating illegally and we hope this conviction serves as a reminder to all drivers to understand and follow the terms of their licences.”

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IDFIMH

No mercy for this chap

Slightly unusual though - South Oxfordshire Council prosecuted him originally, and Reading Council then revoked him, then he unsuccessfully appealed to the magistrates'

Wolverhampton must be doing hundreds of these every year


Private Hire Driver’s Appeal to Court to Overturn Council Decision to Revoke His Licence Unsuccessful

https://media.reading.gov.uk/news/priva ... successful

Private Hire driver caught plying for hire at Henley Regatta 2024

Licence revoked by Council, appeal to overturn the decision in October 2025 unsuccessful

READING MAGISTRATES have upheld Reading Council’s decision to revoke the licence of a Private Hire driver, after he was caught offering illegal rides at Henley Regatta in 2024.

Mr Shabuddin Parvas, of Cressingham Road, Reading, appeared before the court on 7 October 2025 to appeal the Council’s decision, originally made in October 2024.

The decision was taken after Mr Parvas was caught illegally plying for hire at Henley Regatta in July, during a multi-agency covert operation, including Reading Council licensing enforcement officers.

He had offered to illegally transport six passengers from Henley to Reading for £60, without the required prior booking.

It is illegal for Private Hire drivers to pick up passengers from the street or a taxi rank. Private Hire fares must be pre-booked; otherwise, passengers are not covered by insurance in the case of an accident.

At the appeal, Reading Magistrates ruled the Council had reached the correct decision to revoke Mr Parvas’ licence, and no new information or grounds justified overturning the Council’s original decision. As a result, the appeal was dismissed, and Mr Parvas was ordered to pay £700 towards the costs incurred by Reading Borough Council.

Cllr Ennis, Lead Councillor for Climate Strategy and Transport, said:

“This is an important result, and a strong message that illegal activity won’t be ignored.

“We take public safety seriously and won’t hesitate to act when drivers break the rules.

“Reading Licensing will continue to pursue illegal drivers to ensure that event visitors are kept safe, standards of our licensed trade are kept high, and customers can have confidence they are having a safe, legal journey by a properly licensed and vetted driver.”

Anyone with concerns about taxi or Private Hire drivers can report them confidentially to licensing@reading.gov.uk or by calling the Council Contact Centre on 0118 937 3787.

So who will clock up 1000 pfh prosecutions first Cheltenham or south oxfordshire ?

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