Cabbie who offered a woman ‘free ride’ loses his taxi licence

A TAXI driver who made inappropriate comments to a young woman, turned of his fare meter and offered her a “free ride” has had his licence revoked.

The unnamed driver was also known to Rochdale Council which revoked his licence following similar allegations last year.

Bury Council took immediate action against the driver after the licensing authority found that he was being investigated by the police for another incident.

Licensing unit manager Michael Bridge told councillors last night about the decision which was taken on January 29 - a day after the young woman’s complaint was received.

He said:”The decision was taken, in consultation with the chairman of the licensing and safety panel, to revoke his licence with immediate effect on the grounds of public safety.”

Cllr Steve Wright said he was “shocked” about the incident and asked why information was not being shared between licensing departments across council boundaries.

He said: “The incident with the Bury driver could have been avoided if we had the information from Rochdale.”

Mr Bridge explained that there is a national register of refusals and revocations which local authorities have started using. The system, known as NR3, is being actively promoted in Greater Manchester.

But Mr Bridge said it may be a while until this new way of working takes full effect.

He said: ”Unfortunately, at the moment there’s a slow uptake across authorities.

“The idea is that we put five years’ backlog on the register. But there’s a process to go through. The people on the register will have to receive a letter to tell them that they are going on and then there’s a process which I won’t go into now.

The intention is that everyone is registered on that in Greater Manchester.

“But we can’t go on a fishing expedition.”

Bury Council’s head of trading standards and licensing Angela Lomax added: “As soon as that information came to light, we had a discussion and took that decision.”