Private hire driver struck off for alleged sex attacks
26 February 2011
A Private Hire driver has been struck off after allegations of sex attacks were made against him by three female passengers.
Mohammad Ahmed, 53, was banned from being a private hire driver following objections from Strathclyde Police, who claimed that if he continued driving he was “likely to cause a serious threat to public order or public safety” and that he was no longer fit and proper to hold a licence.
Glasgow City Council’s licensing committee was told Ahmed has been reported to the procurator-fiscal for alleged sexual assault and robbery. He had previously had his licence suspended by the authority for “pirating”, or illegal pick-ups.
Officers from the police’s licensing section made the complaints after linking the three alleged incidents to Ahmed. Officers also said that two further incidents of a similar nature had been reported to them and were being reviewed to establish whether the identity of the offender can be confirmed.
At a hearing of the licensing committee, police claimed that in March 2009 Ahmed, of Pollokshields, picked up a female passenger in Glasgow city centre and when she got out of the cab she alleged to two nearby police officers that the driver had touched her inappropriately.
Last October, another female passenger reported that Ahmed allegedly touched her inappropriately when she was in the front seat of his car. The committee heard that a report had been sent to the procurator-fiscal, but no trial date has been set.
In another incident in July 2010, for which the police said Ahmed has been reported to the procurator-fiscal for assault, aggravated by being of a sexual nature, and robbery, he is alleged to have offered a female a lift in the early hours of the morning but the passenger claimed he allegedly began touching her.
The passenger then alleged he refused to take her to an address in the south of Glasgow, stopped the car elsewhere, grabbed her handbag, and demanded money.
During a struggle in the street, police claimed the female grabbed Ahmed’s private-hire identification badge and radio and Ahmed continued trying to take her handbag, dragging her along the ground.
Inspector Tim Ross then claimed Ahmed eventually managed to snatch her bag from her and drove off.
The licensing committee suspended Ahmed’s licence for its remaining 10 months, a move that effectively bans him from driving private-hire cars or taxis.
In another case heard on Thursday, a former professional boxer managed to keep hold of his private hire licence after the majority of the committee agreed he acted in self-defence when he knocked out a member of the public with a punch after an altercation in the city centre.
Alston Buchanan, 38, from the Garscadden area of Glasgow, is alleged to have driven close to a pedestrian who then slapped the vehicle’s rear window.
A row is then said to have taken place during which Buchanan, who was a professional boxer during the 1990s, is alleged to have punched the male on the face, knocking him to the ground unconscious before running off, leaving his private-hire car unattended with the engine running.
Buchanan returned to the scene, on Bath Lane, with police officers, who arrested him. Police said a report had been sent to the procurator-fiscal but no trial date has been set.
At the licensing hearing, he claimed to have been in fear of an attack on himself and acted in self defence, with five of the seven committee members agreeing with his version of events.
Source; http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home ... -1.1087371
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