Benefit cheat cabbie picked up undercover police on Oldham street
David Briddon outside Mishull Street Crown Court David Briddon outside Mishull Street Crown Court
A benefit cheat cabbie was caught illegally plying for trade during a council and police sting.
David Briddon, 60, picked up two undercover police officers in August last year.
Private hire vehicles are not insured to pick up fares unless they were pre-booked by the passenger through the company’s operator in advance.
Briddon, of Dale Square, Royton, Oldham, was found guilty of plying for hire and having no public hire insurance after a trial at the town’s magistrates court.
He now faces losing his licence when he is sentenced on September 8.
It is the second time in four months Briddon has been in court for cheating. In April, he received an eight-month suspended prison sentence for a £21,000 benefit fraud.
He had pleaded guilty at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court to three charges of failing to notify the authorities of a change in his circumstances.
His latest appearance came after Operation Zeus – a joint operation between the council and police targeting drivers who illegally pick up fares.
The court heard how Briddon was driving for Delta Cars when his Skoda Octavia was flagged down by plain-clothed police
on Huddersfield Road, Greenacres, Oldham at 10pm on August 20 last year.
He accepted the fare and started driving before radioing it in to his base.
In interview he claimed he had stopped when he saw the two officers waving because he thought ‘something was wrong’.
However, in court Briddon changed his version of events, claiming he was stationary when the men approached and that he didn’t see them waving at all.
Briddon said he was ‘mithered and hassled’ by them and assumed that because he had called it in he wasn’t breaking the law.
Briddon was one of seven drivers caught during Operation Zeus.
