A fake taxi driver will have to do community service after an investigation was sparked by eagle-eyed Cambridgeshire council officers.

South Cambridgeshire District Council’s licensing team spotted the fake taxi badge after a scanned copy was submitted by Thames Valley Police for checking during a routine vehicle stop in Buckinghamshire back in February.

National taxi licensing rules mean drivers of hackney carriages, that are flagged down on the street, can be licensed in one area and ply for trade in others.

The council had already made Thames Valley Police aware of the possibility that a fraudulent South Cambridgeshire license was being used in their area, due to a previous tip off.

When licensing officers confirmed to police that the document being checked was indeed counterfeit, the driver, Mohammed Hanif from High Wycombe, was arrested.

In October, following a trial at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court, 38-year-old Hanif was found guilty of possessing and article for use in fraud, and must now carry out 120 hours of unpaid work, and pay Crown Court costs of £385.

The fake hackney carriage badge was seized and destroyed.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/mohammed-hanif-south-cambridgeshire-taxi-13876219
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Three major Liverpool taxi firms have joined forces to form a city-wide ‘Private Hire Powerhouse’.

Established city firms Excel Cars, based in Dingle , A1 Cars from Huyton and Seaforth Radio Cars (SRC) from Litherland have created a new group by the name of One Call Taxis.

Under the new system, the three companies will still exist independently - but a new dispatch system will see cars from the other firms become available to customers if needed.

If a customer in Huyton us contacting A1 for a cab but none are immediately available - the One Call system will check to see if drivers from either Excel or SRC or nearby and able to pick up the fare.

A spokesman for One Call said: “This means that instead of customers having to ring around three different firms to find the fastest arrival, one call does it for you.

“We are the first in the whole of the UK to do this and it is working really well and is becoming a great success.”

The new One Call app will bring three established Liverpool private hire firms together

He added: “Instead of competing with our best quality rivals we decided to join forces to offer the people of Liverpool a unparalleled service, which means that overnight we went from a 200/250 car taxi company to over a 700 car taxi company over night.” 

One Call also has an Uber-style mobile phone app, which has access to cars from all three companies and will choose the nearest vehicle for each customer.

Private hire firms in Liverpool - like those all over the world - are being forced to find new ways to compete with the likes of Uber, the American firm which has made huge inroads into the industry with its app.

One Call believes it can compete by bringing together the three major firms, with each boasting over 35-years of experience on Liverpool’s roads.

As well as incorporating an app-based feature, the One Call cars will also allow contactless payments, live GPS tracking of vehicles and ring back and text back features.

There is also a new airport transfer solution, where One Call says it will automatically change the time of jobs to match with any flight delays.

The company spokesman added: “A lot of time and work has gone into this venture and we would love to let the people of Liverpool know about our services.”

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/three-liverpool-taxi-firms-join-13875346