Agenda item

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submits a report.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a report concerning the determination of continued entitlement to a Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicle Driver’s Licence.

The applicant, the Licensing Team Manager, the Licensing Enforcement Officer, and the Legal Adviser to the sub-committee were also present.

Introductions were made and the Chair outlined the procedure of the meeting to those present.

The Licensing Team Manager outlined details of the application, including the relevant City Council Policy Guidelines and drew Member’s attention to the conviction referred to in the report.

The applicant was invited to set out the reasons why he ought to be allowed to continue to hold a Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicle Driver’s Licence. He was given the opportunity to answer questions from the Sub-Committee Members but stated that he had no comment on the matter.

The applicant was then given the opportunity to sum up and make any final comments but declined to do so.

The Sub-Committee received legal advice form the Legal Adviser to the Sub-Committee in the presence of all those present.

In reaching their decision, Members felt they should deliberate in private on the basis that this was in the public interest and as such outweighed the public interest of their deliberation taking place with the parties represented present.

The Chair announced that the decision and reasons made during private deliberation would be publicly announced in writing within five working days.

The Chair informed the meeting the Legal Adviser to the Sub-Committee would be called back to give advice on the wording of the decision.

The Chair then asked all but Members of the Sub-Committee and Democratic Support Officers to disconnect from the meeting. The Sub-Committee then deliberated in private to consider their decision.

The Sub-Committee recalled the Legal Adviser to give advice on the wording of the decision.

RESOLVED:

That the applicant’s Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicle Driver’s Licence be REVOKED.

The Sub-Committee Members had carefully considered the Committee Report placed before them. Members had taken account, where appropriate, of the Department for Transport’s “Statutory Taxi & Private Hire Vehicle Standards”, the Regulators’ Code and the Council’s “Guidelines on relevance of convictions Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicle Drivers”. Members had taken account of the oral and written representations.

Members were informed that the applicant had held a Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicle Driver’s Licence since 29 July 2014.

Members noted that on 3 December 2018 the applicant was convicted at Staffordshire Magistrates’ Court of offences committed on 13 December 2017. The offences related to his involvement in a Mini Market store in Burton upon Trent, the Premises Licence for which he held. The applicant pleaded guilty to engaging in an unfair commercial practice by exposing alcohol for sale at the premises on which no UK duty had been paid. He also pleaded guilty to knowingly allowing cigarettes, on which duty had not been paid, to be kept on the premises and those cigarettes did not carry the required health warnings.

The convictions fell within the category of ‘Other Offences’ under the Council’s Guidelines on Relevance of Convictions which in the absence of exceptional circumstances, provided for a period free from conviction for such offending which was ‘dependent on circumstances’.

The applicant had not immediately notified the Licensing Section of the convictions as he was required to do in accordance with his Licence.

The applicant did not declare the convictions when he applied to renew his Licence on 29 June 2019. In that renewal application, he incorrectly indicated that he had not been convicted of any offences since he had last been issued with his Licence. He signed a declaration as to the correctness of the information he had provided. The applicant did not declare the convictions in his latest renewal application made on 13 July 2020, although Members noted that technically, he did not provide incorrect information in that application when he indicated that he had not been convicted of any offence since he had last been issued with his Licence.

The Council had become aware of the applicant’s convictions for the first time when they received his three-yearly enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check dated 5 August 2020, which was required as part of the Licence renewal process.

Members had not been advised of any history of customer complaints against the applicant, nor had Members been advised of any exceptional circumstances to suggest that the Council’s Guidelines on Relevance of Convictions should not be followed.

The applicant’s offending and subsequent actions had brought into question his integrity. Members were mindful that the protection of the public was their overriding consideration, and that when a driver failed to provide the Council with required information, and failed to provide information which was truthful, the driver hindered the Council’s ability to exercise its regulatory functions.

Members found the applicant’s criminal offending, his failure to notify the Council of his convictions together with the provision of incorrect information in his 2019 renewal application and the signing of an incorrect declaration of correctness in that application constituted ‘any other reasonable cause’ under section 61(1)(b) of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, and that it was appropriate to revoke the Licence.

Members therefore revoked the Licence.

The applicant would be informed he had 21 days to appeal the decision to the Magistrate’s Court should he wish to do so.