Wellingborough cabbie convicted of assaulting police officer keeps taxi licence

Wellingborough Council’s licensing committee decided to go against the ‘firm line’ of the authority’s criminal conviction policy which recommended revoking the licence of the un-named driver and instead decided there were exceptional circumstances and the taxi driver can continue picking up fares.

The taxi driver had been on a night out in Northampton with his family on May 27 to celebrate his birthday when he got into an argument with some young people and a drink was thrown over him.

He retaliated and commonly assaulted a police officer, who was not injured, at the scene. The driver told Wellingborough Council he had little memory of the incident, did not usually drink and had reacted badly to the alcohol because of recent weight loss.

After the incident he pleaded guilty to the charges of common assault of an emergency worker and contravening the public order act.

Minutes from the licensing meeting, which was held on September 16, explain the committee’s reasoning for allowing the driver to continue to hold a hackney carriage drivers’ licence.

It says: “The council’s policy is clear in relation to criminal convictions and as the applicant has been convicted for offences of common assault the policy does state that the licence should be revoked.

“However, this policy can be departed from in exceptional circumstances. The sub-committee considered that the applicant was very remorseful and having reviewed the character references provided felt that this was totally ‘out of character incident’ for the applicant and unlikely to reoccur. In these circumstances the sub-committee considered that the applicant was still a fit and proper person to hold a licence and that it would be appropriate to depart from the policy on this occasion.”