Taxi licence revoked after grooming allegation

The driver failed to reassure councillors over police investigations

A taxi driver investigated over reports of sexual harassment and grooming a young passenger has lost his private hire licence.

Police took no further action on the allegations, but Stockton Council's licensing committee - working to a lower standard of proof - said he “appeared disingenuous” under questioning by council officers.

They added he was “obstructive and uncooperative” and did not attend interviews.

Members concluded the unnamed motorist was not a fit and proper person to hold a combined hackney carriage and private hire vehicle driver’s licence.

Police had investigated alleged grooming of a child passenger several years ago, involving giving free lifts and making contact over social media.

Licensing committee minutes record his denial of grooming "in that way", but list concerns over his credibility and “lack of insight into his inappropriate behaviour”.

More recently, the driver’s licence was suspended while he was under another investigation by Cleveland Police into "sexually malicious phone calls".

He had renewed his taxi licence without telling the authorities about the investigation, which police did not pursue as they could not prove any offence.

'Never had complaints'

The driver insisted he did not know about any malicious communications, who had made the complaint or who had made made the calls.

The committee was told by the driver: “If they (customers) haven’t got credit, they need to ring somebody in an emergency, or whatever, I do give them my phone. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, is there?”

He said he had only one phone, but had given licensing officers five different numbers because he had lost phones and been subjected to scams.

His licence had previously been suspended and revoked, he had been given written warnings and had nine points on his licence for failing to provide driver information.

The man said he did not go to a driver improvement course because he was going through financial hardship and “obviously it’s just slipped out of my head”.

He was also quoted as saying: “I’ve never had any complaints from customers. They’ve always said nice things about me. I’ve always helped them out.”

The licensing committee said it had "doubts surrounding his explanation of the circumstances that led to him being investigated by the police... compounded by [his] concerning history as a licensed driver”.