Saw a generic headline and strapline for this and assumed it was a Glasgow case. But it isn't...
Funny though how the strapline refers to a private hire licence, but elsewhere it's a dual HC/PHV driver's licence
Which would, of course, have indicated that it wasn't a Glasgow case, because you don't get dual licences in Scotland (although if you have a taxi driver's licence you can drive either/or, but it's still a taxi driver's badge in licensing terms rather than a dual badge
)
Stockton taxi driver caught 'smoking joint on day off'https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/ ... t-day-off/A taxi driver who tested positive for cannabis after “smoking a joint on his day off” has failed in an attempt to regain his private hire licence.The motorist was given a random drug test while working in his taxi.
At first, he denied he had taken drugs, telling licensing officers he was a “fit and proper person” to drive a taxi because he was not a drug user.
He later admitted to smoking a joint on his day off, a few days before the positive test result. He said he “would not even think of being intoxicated whilst working as a taxi driver”, and had never been in trouble before in 16 years of being a licensed driver.
The unnamed driver’s hackney carriage and private hire driver licence was revoked in 2023.
He appealed against this at Teesside Magistrates’ Court.
According to minutes of a Stockton Council licensing committee meeting, magistrates had dismissed the appeal saying they did not consider him a fit and proper person, “and that he had compounded his behaviour by lying to officers when he denied the use of cannabis, despite the initial screening test indicating a positive result”.
The motorist came before the committee earlier this year, applying for a fresh hackney carriage and private hire driver licence.
He maintained he was not in his view intoxicated the day he tested positive and he did not receive any complaints.
He was asked about his claims that he had never been in trouble before, despite pre-2002 convictions including possessing cannabis. He responded he had not been in trouble apart from these matters.
The committee found him “defensive” and were concerned at his “unusual” admission that he had been drug-tested by police “many times” without testing positive.
They “were satisfied that they would not allow people for whom they care to enter a vehicle” with the driver, and unanimously decided to refuse his licence application.
In a separate case heard during the same private meeting, another driver applied for a private hire driver licence.
A DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) certificate showed he had a drink driving conviction from July 2017.
He had been banned from driving for a year and fined £400 with £135 costs and a £40 surcharge for drink driving in August 2016 and failing to surrender to custody in September 2016.
Asked about the original conviction, he told licensing officers he was using his friend’s car to take them to the hospital, despite having drunk alcohol, on the day of his arrest in 2016. He also admitted he later received six penalty points on his licence for driving without insurance, though these had expired.
He was asked why he did not surrender to custody when on bail. He said there were “a lot of things going on by then”, his English “wasn’t that good… and I didn’t understand the proper things, what am I supposed to do”.
The committee heard he did not declare any convictions on his application form. He said he was helped by a training provider employee.
They were told he previously did not understand how vehicle insurance worked in the UK as he originally lived in Romania.
He said he now fully understood this as he worked as an HGV driver.
The council said its policy in considering taxi licence applications was the driver “must show at least seven years free from conviction after the restoration of their driving licence”. However the driver’s DVLA licence was restored in July 2018, less than six years before the licensing hearing.
The committee “did not feel that there were any exceptional reasons before them to depart from the policy”. This would mean his taxi licence application could only be considered in July 2025 at the earliest.
They did not believe the motorist was a fit and proper person to hold a private hire driver licence. They decided unanimously to refuse his application.
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