More than 1,400 taxi and private hire drivers in Liverpool fell foul of the city’s licensing enforcement team in 2019, new figures show.
Enforcement officers took action for offences including driving without insurance, charging too much for fares and plying for hire.
Not all drivers were from Liverpool. Some were from Sefton, Knowsley and Wirral and others as far afield as Manchester, Rossendale and Wolverhampton.
Officers prosecuted 56 drivers private hire drivers for playing for hire, which is when they agree to take passengers who have not booked the journey in advance. They issued a further 279 written warnings to drivers who had been found to have defective tyres or other parts or who were not displaying their badge or taxi plate.
Working with the city’s taxi trade, officers also issued 863 fines – the majority of these to private motorists who had illegally parked on the city’s taxi ranks. This is an ongoing concern for Liverpool’s taxi drivers.
Throughout the year, the team also took part in Operation Topaz, which aims to identify cabbies flouting the rules during the city’s match days.
Undercover licensing officers patrol popular taxi spots outside the football grounds, often posing as football fans looking for a ride home.
In one recent case, private hire driver Tariq Ahmed, who is licensed with Sefton Council, was caught by officers following the Liverpool vs Napoli match in December. Ahmed, of Rodney Street, Birkenhead, was seen agreeing to carry three fans who had not pre-booked the journey. Ahmed admitted plying for hire and driving without insurance when facing the city’s magistrates. He was ordered to £487 in fines and costs and given six penalty points.
Operation Topaz and other enforcement initiatives will continue throughout this year. Chair of Liverpool City Council’s Licensing Committee, Cllr Christine Banks said: “The licensing enforcement team has been extremely active during the past year.
“Team members are out at all times of the day and night ensuring that taxi and private hire drivers are playing by the rules in the interests of the safety and security of members of the public.
“Residents and visitors to our city have the right to travel safe in the knowledge that they are not being ripped off or driven illegally. Over the past year, we have introduced many new initiatives to make travelling by taxi even easier. These have included random drug testing for drivers, the introduction of a new knowledge test for drivers and giving passengers the ability to pay by card in Hackney Cabs.”
https://lbndaily.co.uk/1400-taxi-private-hire-drivers-fall-foul-licensing-team/
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HUDDERSFIELD
A furious taxi driver says a man who refused to get out of his cab for hours then verbally abused him, threw a rock at him, vandalised the taxi and urinated inside.
Hackney Carriage driver Muhammed Naeem, 52, picked up the man at 6am today outside McDonald's in John William Street - but says the man would not tell him where he wanted to go and refused to get out of the cab.
Eventually Mr Naeem, from Bradley, took three passengers to Skelmanthorpe, who said the man could travel with them.
But he says when they left the man still refused to get out, pretended to be asleep on the back seat and then chased him and threw a rock at him before pulling the taxi door off and urinating in the cab.
Mr Naeem filmed most of the ordeal on his phone and footage shows the man telling the group going to Skelmanthorpe: 'I was going to get a hotel but this is cheaper."
After getting back inside the man is heard to say: "Taxi's fallen apart man. You need to get the f***ing AA out. It's not f***ing going well, is it? That dream of that business you are going to build in the UK? It's not going well, is it?"
Mr Naeem said the man eventually ran off towards Huddersfield in the direction of Shelley College.
A person living nearby who had seen what the man did helped Mr Naeem secure his door he said.
Mr Naeem said he called 999 three times but says he was told nobody would be able to attend.
He said he was disappointed with the police's response and has asked them to call him back after 6pm.
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/abusive-passenger-trashed-taxi-says-17798464
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