Agenda item

To determine a private hire/hackney carriage drivers licence.

The Chairman brought Item 7 forward in the proceedings. He introduced the Panel and explained procedure to the driver.

The Enforcement Officer gave a summary of the report. The driver had carried out a job and his employer had received a complaint alleging that he had been undertaking vehicles at speed and driving dangerously on the M11, while returning from dropping off a customer. He had not had a passenger in the car at the time. A speed check by the driver’s operator showed that during the outward journey with the customer, the driver had been travelling at over 70mph, and at one point reached 87mph. This matter had not been reported to the police. The Enforcement Officer noted that the speed of the driver’s vehicle had not been tracked on his return journey.

The driver said that on his outward journey with the passenger, he had slowed down when he realised he was speeding. The spike of 87mph had been on a tricky stretch of road, when he had been entering a motorway in the fast lane, and had had to speed to get onto the motorway safely.

The driver said that the reason he had swerved on his return journey was because he had turned onto a motorway and almost immediately had to exit. This had all happened quickly and he had almost missed his exit. He then noticed the car he had swerved in front of flashing his lights at him. The car continued to chase him for a couple of miles, and he had assumed it was because there was a problem with his vehicle. When he returned to his operator, the driver got them to check it over, but no issue was found, and he later found out that the driver had reported him.

B Drinkwater noted the driver was sorry for having been speeding at 87mph for a short period, although it was not illegal to speed if there were special reasons for doing so. It was also in dispute that he had driven dangerously. The driver had no speeding convictions since 2004, and only had three points on his licence.

At 11.55 the Committee retired.

At 12.50 the Committee returned.

The Chairman read the decision to the driver.

Councillor Gerard left the meeting.

DECISION NOTICE:

The application before the Panel today is for the suspension or revocation of the driver’s  joint private hire/hackney carriage licence number PH/HC2809 dated 6^th July 2018 in accordance with S61  (1) (b) Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976.- any other reasonable cause. The licence is due to expire on 30^th June 2021.  He is currently employed by 24 x 7Ltd as an airport driver and the complaint before us was referred to the Council by them.

On 4^th September 2018, the driver accepted a journey from Stansted Airport.   A  complaint was made to 24x7 Limited by a third party road user that between 18.30 and 19.00 hours a vehicle subsequently identified on their systems as being driven by the driver was undertaking vehicles at speed and driving otherwise dangerously upon the M11.  From their computer records 24x7 Limited were able to identify that the driver had carried a passenger before returning to Stansted and that while he was carrying this passenger he was consistently driving at well above the 70mph speed limit for motorways, at one point reaching a speed of 87mph. When 24 x 7 raised the matter with him, the driver admitted the offence and assured them it would not happen again: however, on 6^th September the matter was referred to the Council by 24 x 7. The Police have never been involved.

Following this referral, the Licensing Department carried out a DVLA Drivercheck of the driver’s driving licence on 02 January 2019, which showed he had three penalty points on his licence.   This was for a CD10 offence (driving without due care and attention) on 10 December 2017.

Our attention has been drawn to the MoJ Speeding (revised 2017) Sentencing Guidelines. A copy of these is included among the papers before us, a copy of which have been served upon the driver. If he were before the Courts and were proved to have been travelling at 87mph in a 70mph zone, he would expect to incur a Band A fine (the lowest band fine) and three penalty points.   However, there are aggravating factors which would incur a heavier penalty from the Courts and one of them is ‘driving for hire or reward.’   It is important to note that this Committee is not a Court and this information is provided for members to use as a guide only in their decision making.

The Enforcement Officer carried out a telephone interview with the driver  on 15^th October 2018.   He made the following points:-

·         That at the time of the complaint he believed that there were no passengers on board.   He confirmed that he had dropped customers off and was returning on the M11 northbound.

·         The driver stated that he was not aware that he was speeding and claimed that he did not speed with passengers on board.

·         Since the complaint he has tried to obey the speed limits at all times.

·         He has three penalty points on his licence – dangerous driving from when joining M11 from M25 previous to being licensed.

·         He confirmed that he has never been a licensed driver before.

We have read the papers before us and we have heard from the driver and from Mr Drinkwater on his behalf. We have been able to identify that there are two discrete incidents complained of, namely the complaint made by a third party witness of undertaking and other unsafe manoeuvring, signalled by that person to the driver and believed by him to be an attempt to draw his attention to defects in the vehicle, and the speeding recorded electronically and detected by systems interrogation following receipt of the complaint.  Both are serious matters and we give the driver credit for his self-reporting of the incident involving the third party complainant.

We note that the driver has a good driving record and that he has held a PSV driving licence for a number of years. We also note his contrition and believe that he has learned his lesson. However, given that the incidents are serious, we cannot let them go unsanctioned. Our attention has been drawn to the Government’s Sentencing Guidelines for speeding offences. Though we are not bound by them, we note that at the time of the speeding offence evidenced by electronic records, that the driver was carrying a passenger and hence was driving for reward in a situation where from our own experience, there was a fast and a slow option available to him, and he chose the former.

Though he continues to meet the Driver Standards set out in Appendix A of the Council’s Licensing Standards, paragraph 8 of Appendix G to the Council’s Licensing Standards for Drivers requires drivers to

“Take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of passengers”

The speeding offence took place with a passenger aboard.

The primary function of this Committee is to ensure the safety of members of the travelling public.  Though he said in interview that  he was not driving passengers at the time the driver was mistaken in this belief, and though the Police have not become involved he was nevertheless committing a criminal  offence and therefore in the interests of the proper protection of the public  we consider that  we have no alternative but to suspend  the driver’s  licence under S61 (b) of the 1976 Act by way of sanction. This suspension will be for a period of seven days.

There is a right of appeal against this decision which must be exercised within a period of 21 days.  The licence continues in being pending the resolution of any appellate process, so the suspension will therefore commence on 18^th February 2019 for a period of seven days. The driver will receive a letter from the Legal Department explaining this.