Three minicab drivers have been hit with a bill of more than two thousand pounds after a crackdown on illegal taxi drivers in Stone.
The Lucky Seven drivers admitted plying for hire illegally when they agreed to take undercover officers from Station Road in Stone to the town’s Darlaston Inn - in separate incidents earlier this year.
The defendants from Stoke on Trent were 34 year old Mohammed Nasir of Crowther Street, Shahid Mahmood, aged 33, of Upper Belgrave Road, and Shawaiz Iqbal, also 33 years old, of Hamilton Road.
Nasir pleaded guilty by post to two charges of plying for hire illegally and not having the appropriate insurance and was ordered to pay fines and costs of £909.30. Mahmood admitted similar charges when he appeared before the court and was given £613.60 in fines and costs. And Iqbal also pleaded guilty before the magistrates to plying for hire illegally and received a £513.60 bill.
All three cases were heard at Stafford Magistrates.
Mahmood, a father of four, told the court he had been a driver for more than a decade and had never been in trouble before, describing it as ‘an act of stupidity. In a statement read out in court Iqbal said he was a family man with an unblemished record and free of any motoring convictions. In his letter to the magistrates, Nasir said he had made a ‘mistake.’
The court heard the drivers were stopped in a joint operation between Stafford Borough Council and police officers, in April and May, looking at enforcement of hackney carriages and private hire vehicles.
Drivers who do not have a hackney carriage licence can only pick up passengers that have booked in advance - and it is illegal for them to collect customers in the street or from a taxi rank. The ‘Safer Nights’ operation aims to reduce the risks to residents of uninsured and unsafe vehicles on the roads in the borough.
Following the case, Cabinet Member for Environment and Health, Councillor Frank Finlay, said he hoped the fines would send a message to others: “We are determined to clamp down on drivers who stick two fingers up at the law by picking up customers when they are not entitled to.”
There have been a number of successful similar prosecutions over the last few months by the Borough Council.
More information on taxis and private hire vehicles can be found at www.staffordbc.gov.uk/transport-and-str … d-minicabs
source: http://www.signal1.co.uk/
