Taxi Driver Online

Bristol Evening Post

October 25, 2006 Wednesday

HEADLINE: Couple pay for 'amateurish' speeding ticket con

A Taxi driver who asked his wife to take the rap for two speeding tickets landed both of them in court.

Douglas G****** was a self-employed cabbie working out of Bristol Airport, Bristol Crown Court heard yesterday.

When he was caught speeding in his Ford Galaxy on Bath Road, Bristol, and again in Hampshire a month later, his wife Janet said she had been driving and ended up with six penalty points on her licence.

But the pair were rumbled when the police realised his wife only held a provisional licence and therefore would not have been legally able to drive the taxi.

Douglas G****** 50, Clevedon, and his wife Janet, 51, both pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Recorder Eric Salomonsen handed Mr G***** a community punishment ordering him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and his wife the same order with 40 hours' unpaid work. He must also pay £250 prosecution costs.

Richard Posner, prosecuting, said that on the two occasions when Douglas G***** was caught on camera he put his wife forward as the driver of the vehicle.

On each occasion she was given a £30 speeding penalty and had three points put on her licence. The court heard that when police based at Bristol Airport analysed which taxis had drivers convicted for speeding, they realised Janet G***** was a provisional licence holder only.

In interview she told police she had taken the points to keep her husband's licence clean. Mr G***** admitted what happened and accepted it was his idea.

The court heard that, once put on to one driver's licence the points cannot be transferred to another's so even though the scam was uncovered, no points will be added to Douglas G****** licence.

The court heard that in 2003 he was convicted of failing to provide a specimen of breath and was fined £400 and banned from driving for 15 months.

James Cranfield, defending the couple, told the court that the scheme was extremely amateurish and ill thought out. He told the court: "It would not take a genius to look at the speed camera pictures to see that Mrs G***** is not bald with a moustache."

The recorder told Douglas G*****: "You have avoided six penalty points which you deserve. "You have exposed your wife to the disgrace of appearing in this court."
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So this mush has only had his DVLA license back what seems five minutes and his council give him a taxi license.

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IDFIMH