Hackney Drivers around the Country have been disgusted by the huge rise in Sex Attacks which are often quoted by the press as committed by Taxi drivers.

In Parliament last week, amendments were made to the Crime and Policing Bill 2015.

Sections of the LGMPA 1976 and The London Cab Act have been changed to place a duty on Licensing Authorities to consider implications of Sex offences when issuing Licenses.

The ammendments are not considered enough and  a new fresh set of regulations are promised.

Read the debate abnd consider for yourself.

 http://www.theyworkforyou.com/pbc/2015-16/Policing_and_Crime_Bill/07-0_2016-04-12a.330.2?s=taxi#g330.4
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 NOTTINGHAM

 Taxi driver accused of raping stranger on the back seat of his cab

Nottingham driver Shapoor Azimi allegedly raped a former student on the back seat of his taxi in Sneinton, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

He is on trial facing two rape charges involving a passenger in his private-hire taxi - but claims the stranger actually sexually assaulted him in his car.

The jury heard that he had received a caution for kerb-crawling in 2006, and was convicted in 2011 for soliciting a lone female for sex.

He allegedly attacked the victim in this case, after she got into his car outside a Nottingham city centre club last October.

The ex-graduate fitted the description of another woman Azimi was said to have researched online only days earlier.

Prosecutor Gordon Aspden told the jury the defendant was a man in his mid-thirties who had an intense and persistent interest in seeking out, soliciting, kerb-crawling, and accosting young women.

"It is a sexual compulsion which manifests itself both in public and in private, at work and at leisure, in daylight and in darkness," he told the trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

"His motive, you may conclude, is a powerful desire to engage in sexual activity with young women who are strangers. The purpose purely his sexual gratification. Such contact is clearly to his taste.

"There is an unhealthy, unsavoury interest in deviant and abnormal sexual behaviour towards women, and a deeply ingrained fixation with their sexual exploitation.

"His car, of course, plays an integral part in all this sexual behaviour. It is the place where he indulges himself; the mobile vantage point from which he can observe young women as he cruises around the city."

http://goo.gl/xPb45B
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 PERTH

 A taxi driver raced emergency vehicles as they responded to a 999 call.

Colin McFarlane obstructed two police cars and a van as they tried to respond to a violent incident in Perth on May 1 last year.

Perth Sheriff Court was told his driving was so obstructive the third police vehicle gave up trying to get past him because it was too dangerous to try to overtake.

Fiscal depute Stuart Richardson said: "At 1.10am, there was a call from police control about a violent incident taking place. Three police vehicles were on patrol in the city centre.

"Two cars and a van all decided to head in the direction of where the disturbance was taking place. The van driver was in Feus Road when he noticed Mr McFarlane's taxi in front of him.

"He put on blue flashing lights and sirens, expecting Mr McFarlane to move to the side of the road. He didn't - he simply kept travelling along in front of the police.

"It became a case of the police vehicle trying to overtake the taxi and he had to increase his speed to 50mph to eventually get past Mr McFarlane."

Mr Richardson said McFarlane was "well aware" of the police presence but continued to increase his speed to an estimated 60mph.

McFarlane was not stopped at the time because the officers were all busy dealing with the violent incident but he was traced later in the day.

The court was told the cabbie felt he had been "stitched up" by police officers during an earlier incident.

Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said McFarlane had been given points previously after pulling through a red light to let officers past, only for them to slow down and charge him instead.

He said: "They booked him for running a red light. That has had a bearing on this. He got himself into a fankle in how to deal with the vehicles behind him."

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis noted McFarlane already had six penalty points on his licence and imposed a further eight along with a £500 fine.

He rejected McFarlane's bid to avoid a ban and disqualified him for five months under totting up procedures.

McFarlane told the court he had been suspended from his job for two months and would face severe financial problems as a result of being disqualified.

http://goo.gl/pXC8x2
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 East Cambs and Fenland taxi drivers protest as they hand community transport funding ‘dossier’ to Cambridgeshire County Council

Around 20 drivers from across the area lobbied county councillors at Shire Hall, Cambridge on Tuesday where they presented a 38 page report by a private investigation firm.

Cambridgeshire Bus, Coach and Taxi Association has funded a £1,000 report by Woodgate Investigations into concerns that FACT (Fenland Association for Community Transport) and community transport groups including Ely and Soham Community Transport (EACT) and Huntingdonshire Association for Community Transport (HACT) have been given an unfair commercial advantage over members of the association.

Association leader Dave Humphrey, who has led a three-and-a-half-year campaign to highlight what he terms “the unfairness of the way county council transport contracts are awarded to community transport groups” presented the document to Councillor Ian Bates, chairman of the economic and environment committee and Graham Hughes, executive director of economy, transport and environment.

Mr Hughes said the documents will now be looked at and discussed internally and they will report back on their findings.

Taxi drivers and firms from Fenland and the Ely area helped fund the report following the launch of the association in September last year.

Councillor Paul Clapp said: “If corruption has been carried out by, officers should be sacked and so should councillors.”

Councillor Alan Lay branded the document as “dynamite” and said “the allegations must be thoroughly investigated”.

Gregory Page, director of Woodcote Investigations, whose credentials include being a retired detective with Cambridgeshire police, said in summary of his findings: “It’s my professional opinion the evidence is supportive of a far more in-depth investigation than can be identified to have previously taken place.

“Only such an investigation would give the transparency the documented evidence indicates is needed.”

Wisbech taxi driver, parish councillor Dave Patrick said: “This is a very comprehensive report and the findings now need to be verified as either true or false.”

In the past Mr Humphrey working with two or three fellow taxi drivers have been dismissed as simply being “vexatious” and have been accused of running an “unwarranted and unsubstantiated vendetta”.

Mr Humphrey said: “We were dismissed as just a couple of taxi drivers, that’s why we have employed a professional investigator.”

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesman said: “The council has been made aware of some potentially serious allegations regarding the misuse of grant funding. “Whilst, we the council, have confidence in the diligence and propriety of its officers, given the nature of the allegations the information provided is currently under review to establish whether further action is warranted.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further at this point.”
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A Mansfield taxi driver lost his livelihood when he was banned for moving his cab to avoid a parking ticket while drunk.

Witnesses saw Jon Phillips strike two parked vehicles near his on home on Welbeck Street, on April 1, and called police.

Lee Shepherd, prosecuting, said: “Police tried to speak to him and he ignored them.

“He failed the roadside breath test and was found to be twice over the legal limit.”

Phillips, 43, admitted the offence.

Tim Haynes, mitigating, said Phillips, a single parent, had 22 years of experience as a taxi driver and had a clean licence.

“He was simply trying to move his vehicle to avoid a parking ticket,” he said. “This is clearly a one-off aberration on his part.

“He apologises to the court and shows genuine remorse.”

He was banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay a £120 fine, £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

http://goo.gl/PB0BA4
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 NEW YORK

 Taxi partitions are about to go the way of the checkered cab in New York City.

The Taxi & Limousine Commission officials said Thursday that cabbies can do away with their partitions — so that they can better compete with Uber by seeming friendlier.

The move also will help the hacks make better tips, the officials said.

“When there’s no partition, a driver can have a conversation with the passenger,” said TLC board member Nora Marino.

Partitions were mandated for yellow cabs in 1994 as a safety precaution for drivers in the city’s sky-high crime era.

Cabbies who take down their partitions will now be required to install a security camera instead.

http://goo.gl/jgGJlv