Cab licence granted in private
18 Mar 2010
The first hearing under new legislation designed to weed out criminal elements in the taxi trade has allowed a cab firm with shareholder links to the late crime lord Tam McGraw to continue trading.
In a meeting closed to the public, officials from East Renfrewshire Council awarded Barrhead-based Compass Cabs a radio base licence after the firm’s legal representative, Paul McBride, QC, argued that a major shareholder with criminal associations was no longer connected to the company.
However, there are still concerns about deficiencies within the new law, which still allows shareholders to hide behind “clean” directors and managers.
The last accounts of Compass Cabs show John “Joker” McCartney, a former binman who made his name as the right-hand man of Tam “The Licensee” McGraw, as a 25% shareholder.
The other shareholders included Julie Malcolm, the ex-wife of Stevie Malcolm, who has made millions from taxis after buying Glasgow Private Hire, previously known as Mac Cabs, from McGraw’s wife, and a Christopher McLean.
Ms Malcolm now owns 100% of the firm.
Strathclyde Police’s case was that the operations director of Compass Cabs, Derek Mullaney, was “not a fit and proper person” to hold the radio base licence given the background of one or more of the shareholders.
Strathclyde Police has left open the prospect of a future appeal.
Almost three years ago, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill arranged meetings with senior police officers over concerns that Glasgow-based organised criminal gangs were expanding into Edinburgh and that one key area was the private hire trade.
Legislation was last year introduced by the Scottish Government requiring all booking offices for the taxi and cab trade to be licensed.
The scheme, for which councils and police chiefs had been calling, allows the police to carry out full background and financial checks on firms and then recommend to councils whether they should be licensed.
However, the documentation firms must complete does not require them to disclose shareholders, a major loophole as far as lawyers and the police are concerned.
Until the introduction of the new requirements, licensing authorities were effectively powerless to exert any control over the running of such businesses.
Last night Mr McBride said of yesterday’s outcome: “What this hearing showed is that the legislation is, in principle, totally correct.
“We all want to see an end to criminal elements within the licensed trade. But aspects of the legislation are deficient and need to be amended to strengthen the hand of the police to prevent the criminal fraternity being involved in licensed activity.”
Meanwhile, the decision to hold the meeting in private has caused concern, as police forces prefer all civic licensing cases to be held in public.
Leading licensing lawyers told The Herald that article six of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that such hearings should be held in public, over-rides the Scottish legislation that allows for some exemptions within licensing committees, including personal and financial information.
Of the 12 councils in the Strathclyde force area, only Glasgow, East and West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute hold their hearings in public.
An East Renfrewshire Council spokesman said: “The licensing committee agreed to exclude press and public under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 on the grounds that the committee’s consideration of the application for the booking office licence was likely to involve disclosure of exempt information.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We encourage openness and transparency for all meetings whenever possible but recognise that very occasionally it may be appropriate to deal with matters in private.”
Source; HeraldScotland.com
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