BRIGHTON

A TAXI driver convicted of benefit fraud has been stripped of his taxi licence.

Khalil Kirollos, 55, from Hangleton, Hove, was given a suspended sentence in March over benefit fraud totalling more than £15,000.

Adur district councillors revoked his Adur Private Hire and Taxi Licence and now magistrates have upheld their decision.

A spokesman for Adur district council said magistrates thought “drivers must have a high standard of integrity” given the need to “protect the public”. 

Brighton and Hove City Council prosecuted him for the benefit fraud.

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GLASGOW

Unsuspecting cabbie snaps suspect leaving car minutes after schoolgirl hit-and-run took place

JIM MURRAY thought he was just taking a photograph of the man's car after the driver crashed it into his taxi.

A MAN was arrested last night over the hit-and-run death of schoolgirl Sophie Brannan – hours after this picture emerged of a suspect.

Cabbie Jim Murray took the ­photograph after the suspect’s car crashed into his taxi.

Sophie, 11, was killed after the driver of a hire car mounted the pavement near her home in Maryhill, Glasgow.

Her friend Chelsea ­Sommerville, 10, and her uncle Joseph Lloyd, 36, were also hit in Friday’s crash on Sandbank Street.

Chelsea was being treated for a broken leg in Yorkhill Hospital yesterday. Joseph’s shoulder was fractured. He was released from the Western Infirmary on Sunday.

Jim yesterday told how he took a picture on his phone moments after the collision, which happened while he was working.

At that stage he knew nothing about Sophie’s crash, which had just happened close by.
Jim said: “The car just came round the corner and hit the side of my car.

“The car pulled over 200 metres away. At that point, I had no idea about what had happened.”

Jim, a taxi driver for 20 years, only found out about the fatal crash when he rang his bosses.

His five-month-old Ford S-Max taxi, which was left with thousands of pounds worth of damage, was taken by police for forensic ­examinations.           

Jim, 52, from Yoker, said: “I felt sick when I heard what had happened to the poor wee girl.”

Sophie, Chelsea and Joseph are believed to have been on the way to buy ice cream when they were hit in the street, about half a mile from Sophie’s front door.

The car then struck a fence and ­a ­tenement wall before it drove away on to Maryhill Road and then Lochburn Road, where it crashed into Jim’s taxi.
Police have been studying CCTV footage of the route the 
car took.

Sophie’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins yesterday examined flowers and gifts left at the scene.

Her mum Marie Maguire, dad Graham Brannan and brother Graham, 13, have been left devastated by the crash.

Sophie’s cousin John McGhee, 20, said: “My wee cousin is a hero, the best funniest wee cousin you can imagine.

“I’m heartbroken that she’s gone and there will never be a day goes by when I won’t be thinking about my wee cousin.

“No words can describe what our family is going through. Nobody will know what it’s like until they’ve lost somebody that age in their own family.”
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Milton Keynes' Subhan Shafiq resigns over taxi rapist row

Subhan Shafiq resigned as mayor over the affair in August
A councillor who personally vouched for a taxi driver who had convictions for rape and sexual assault has resigned.

Subhan Shafiq, Liberal Democrat at Milton Keynes Council, resigned as mayor in August after Nadeem Ahmed Kiani gained a taxi licence in 2011.

A council report released earlier showed Mr Shafiq gave Kiani a "glowing" reference, despite admitting he had made "mistakes in the past".

In a resignation letter, Mr Shafiq apologised for any distress caused.

The authority revealed in August that Kiani, who had been a local taxi driver for three years, had raped and sexually abused prostitutes in London in 1994. He was jailed for eight years.

'Publicly apologise'
He had been vouched for by Mr Shafiq, who resigned as town mayor when the discovery was made. Licensing committee chairman Stuart Burke and deputy chairman Gladstone McKenzie also stepped down.

Afterwards it was discovered seven other drivers in the city also had criminal convictions.

But a further investigation revealed that councillors knew of Kiani's previous convictions, but they were swayed by the character reference provided by Mr Shafiq.

It said Mr Shafiq, who had known Kiani since childhood, told councillors: "He was a solid member of the mosque, prays every day, he has a wife and children, he made mistakes in the past and wants to move forward."

He later denied any knowledge of his criminal convictions.


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