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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2020 12:14 am 
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Unlicensed woman taxi driver with no insurance took passengers to East Midlands Airport

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/burton ... no-4643783

She lied to officers but was caught when they studied airport CCTV

An unlicensed woman taxi driver was caught picking up fares in Ashby and even took passengers to East Midlands Airport.

Zara Siraj was driving illegally for Ashby taxi firm, A1 Taxis, and has now been prosecuted by North West Leicestershire District Council.

The 40-year-old pleaded guilty to three offences including driving a licensed vehicle without a private hire driver’s licence, failing to have insurance to cover third party risks and providing incorrect and misleading information to licensing enforcement officers, when she appeared before Loughborough Magistrates' Court.

A spokesman for the district council said after the case that it had received complaints from members of the public to say that Siraj had been driving a licensed vehicle without a licence to carry out bookings, including taking passengers to the Castle Donington airport.

Licensing officers from the authority visited the taxi firm to look into the vehicle's bookings in August 2019.

Siraj was working at the firm on the day of the visit and was deliberately dishonest with booking information and failed to give any details of the East Midlands Airport journey.

After the visit, the two officers requested CCTV footage from the IT department at East Midlands Airport which confirmed that Siraj had been driving the vehicle on August 12, 2019 at around 4.20pm and was therefore committing an offence.

At the court the hearing, Siraj, of Cardigan Road, Bedworth, was given six penalty points on her licence, fined £166, must pay a victim surcharge of £34 and was ordered to pay council costs of £185.

Councillor Andrew Woodman, the council's portfolio holder for community services, said after the hearing: "Driving a licensed vehicle without a private hire driver's licence and failing to have the necessary insurance as a taxi driver, is not only a criminal offence but incredibly dangerous to passengers and other road users.

"The role of our licensing enforcement officers is to ensure that individuals and firms are complying with the law which is there to keep people safe.

"The most basic rule of taxi driving is that you must have a licence and this case shows how seriously we take our role in enforcing this.

"Thankfully the vast majority of the drivers in our district do a fantastic job and I hope people can use our licensed operators with confidence, knowing the zero tolerance approach we take to unlicensed drivers."


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2020 12:17 am 
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Quote:
Siraj was working at the firm on the day of the visit and was deliberately dishonest with booking information and failed to give any details of the East Midlands Airport journey.

After the visit, the two officers requested CCTV footage from the IT department at East Midlands Airport which confirmed that Siraj had been driving the vehicle on August 12, 2019 at around 4.20pm and was therefore committing an offence.

At the court the hearing, Siraj, of Cardigan Road, Bedworth, was given six penalty points on her licence, fined £166, must pay a victim surcharge of £34 and was ordered to pay council costs of £185.

Certainly at the lower end of the financial penalties.

First paragraph suggests she was maybe working in the office and doing the odd driving job [-X

More common than the level of prosecutions suggest, I suspect 8-[


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2020 8:38 am 
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StuartW wrote:
Quote:
Siraj was working at the firm on the day of the visit and was deliberately dishonest with booking information and failed to give any details of the East Midlands Airport journey.

After the visit, the two officers requested CCTV footage from the IT department at East Midlands Airport which confirmed that Siraj had been driving the vehicle on August 12, 2019 at around 4.20pm and was therefore committing an offence.

At the court the hearing, Siraj, of Cardigan Road, Bedworth, was given six penalty points on her licence, fined £166, must pay a victim surcharge of £34 and was ordered to pay council costs of £185.

Certainly at the lower end of the financial penalties.

First paragraph suggests she was maybe working in the office and doing the odd driving job [-X

More common than the level of prosecutions suggest, I suspect 8-[

Now, the report also states that she was charged with driving the car without a Private hire badge. Will the company now be investigated for allowing her to drive and could this affect their operators license?

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2020 11:16 am 
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grandad wrote:
StuartW wrote:
Quote:
Siraj was working at the firm on the day of the visit and was deliberately dishonest with booking information and failed to give any details of the East Midlands Airport journey.

After the visit, the two officers requested CCTV footage from the IT department at East Midlands Airport which confirmed that Siraj had been driving the vehicle on August 12, 2019 at around 4.20pm and was therefore committing an offence.

At the court the hearing, Siraj, of Cardigan Road, Bedworth, was given six penalty points on her licence, fined £166, must pay a victim surcharge of £34 and was ordered to pay council costs of £185.

Certainly at the lower end of the financial penalties.

First paragraph suggests she was maybe working in the office and doing the odd driving job [-X

More common than the level of prosecutions suggest, I suspect 8-[

Now, the report also states that she was charged with driving the car without a Private hire badge. Will the company now be investigated for allowing her to drive and could this affect their operators license?


The operator should have been prosecuted along with her, the operator could still be awaiting their visit to the court.


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:22 pm 
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Quote:
Certainly at the lower end of the financial penalties.

Based on current income. Which as she is no longer (hopefully) illegally working is severely reduced.

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 14, 2022 4:16 am 
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Grandad wrote:
Now, the report also states that she was charged with driving the car without a Private hire badge. Will the company now be investigated for allowing her to drive and could this affect their operators license?

Heathcote wrote:
The operator should have been prosecuted along with her, the operator could still be awaiting their visit to the court.

Bump :-o

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=38611


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