Two Stockport taxi drivers who were touting for business in Wilmslow have been caught in a joint operation involving Cheshire East Council's enforcement team and Cheshire police.
Plain-clothes police officers posed as customers to catch the private hire drivers who were plying for business at the roadside in Wilmslow town centre. As they did not have a licence to operate in Cheshire East, they were in breach of private hire regulations.
The two drivers, who were licensed with Stockport council, agreed to take their passengers, not knowing they were undercover police. Once they set off, they were intercepted by a marked police car.
Cheshire East Council's licensing team successfully prosecuted the two operators when they came before South Cheshire Magistrates at Crewe on separate dates.
Both were convicted of plying for hire without a licence for the borough in which they were operating. They were also convicted of driving without insurance.
One driver – Monjur Ahmed (42), of Wilton Avenue, Heald Green, Stockport, pleaded guilty and was fined £180 with £150 costs. He also received six penalty points on his driver's licence and could now face having his operator's licence revoked by Stockport Council.
The second driver, Mohammed Perveg Ahmed (39), of Outwood Road, Heald Green, was fined £500 with £2,000 costs. He received eight penalty points on his driver's licence. He also faces losing his operator's licence.
Monjur Ahmed was parked outside a petrol station in Alderley Road and the other driver was parked outside Starbucks.
Councillor Mick Warren, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for communities, said: "I thank our licensing team and Cheshire police for conducting this operation and bringing about successful convictions in both cases.
"This sends a message to all taxi operators that we are an enforcing authority and we will prosecute where taxi operators try to pick up fares in Cheshire East when not licensed to do so.
"Not only do they put their own business at risk but they also invalidate their own insurance – and that places their passengers at risk too, should an accident occur."
Police joined forces with the council's enforcement team in 'Operation Magpie' and intend to carry out further swoops on unlicensed cabbies in the future in a bid to clamp down on the unlawful practice and protect residents and visitors to the borough.
Comments
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How about we put all this resource into sorting the parking problem? Something that effects everyone in the town.
It is Ben-Hur, the 1959 film starring Charlton Heston, and not Ben hurr.
It is also 'KIDNAP' meaning 'to carry off (a person) against that person's will' and not KID NAP - which literally means to 'deceive someone into having a short period of sleep'.
Car insurance for third party, fire & theft [TPFT} it will state somewhere in the small print/conditions whether you can use the cover in connection with a business and may only use it for 'Social Domestic and Pleasure Purposes' and NOT for 'hiring, the letting on hire, the carriage of passengers or goods for hire or reward, racing, pacemaking, use on any track, test circuit or off road activity, use in any contest, reliability or speed trial, or use in connection with the Motor trade.' Well at least that is what my motor insurance policy states and I have copied exactly the words in single quotation marks from my existing policy.
So if these taxi drivers were operating under their own insurance I am certain there would be no cover in an accident.
It states that they were operating without insurance, which could mean not even the standard insurance that we all must have - even the TPFT that you suggest!
So can you check on your facts again and correct what might appear to most of the readers as more DUFF GEN!
It is now illegal for insurance companies to not offer cover if the driver has paid the agreed rate. It was being used as ways for them to get out of paying out. So if a driver is fully comp, the minimum he will get is third party fire and theft even if , for example, he has no mot. You have fallen into a common mistake made by people who don’t have the knowledge.
I promise to read a dictionary if you promise to read something on a subject you clearly don’t understand
However..... why is almost every cab I see in and around Wilmslow is licenced in WOLVERHAMPTON and not Macclesfield / Cheshire? Is it not time these cabs were also fined for operating outside their licensed area, or is it allowed that a cab licensed over 50 miles away is allowed to operate as long as the company they supposedly work for is licensed in Cheshire East?
Private Hire – with this licence, you can only work from private hire operators base
Hackney Carriage – with this licence you can work from the town’s taxi ranks and be hailed on the street. Hackney carriages can also work through a private hire operator
For private hire or hackney carriage work, both the driver and vehicle must be licensed. A driver of the vehicle may also need an operator’s licence if they are taking private hire bookings directly.
Stockport cabbies getting out of their cars for a piddle and a smoke is priceless.
Please let me know how your flippant attitude and comments are helping get Wilmslow back on its feet?
I would suggest to everyone that they slowly and deliberately read over what they have written before pressing the SUBMIT button. This way we all might have better comments from those who wish to say something!
It is a good idea to write you comment in a word document first where it can be spell & grammar checked for errors that you might not have noticed. Then you can copy and paste it into the comment box before submitting.