 Northampton private hire driver tots up 23 points
private hire driver has been left with 23 points on his licence – almost the legal double for a ban – after being caught plying for trade without insurance.
Aamir Afzal was parked in Gold Street, Northampton, in February 2008, when he was asked to go to Far Cotton by two officers working undercover.
When they arrived at the destination, Afzal was cautioned by waiting police officers for plying for hire without a public hackney carriage licence and having no insurance.
His driving licence was already endorsed with 15 points – the total required for a ban is 12 – and Northampton magistrates gave Afzal a further eight penalty points.
Afzal, 39, of Agnes Road, Northampton, had pleaded guilty to the offences at an earlier hearing and was fined £300 and a £15 victim surcharge, as well as being given a six-month driving ban.
Fellow driver Rashid Aziz was also caught by police and Northampton Borough Council officers during the operation, when he took undercover officers from the University of Northampton's Park campus to Kingsthorpe.
He told magistrates: "I didn't actually stop to ply for trade, I had dropped a job off there. I tried to contact the company I work for on two occasions to check if I could book it.
"It's my mistake for taking them, which I know I shouldn't have done."
Martin Kean, of the Northampton Private Hire Association, said: "The punishment fits the crime. Private hire drivers know they shouldn't be plying for trade, so if they get caught doing it, there's no defence.
"Clearly this is a problem because the police keep going out and catching drivers picking people up illegally, despite being told by the police and by the council that they shouldn't be doing it."
Aziz, 34, of The Headlands, Northampton, pleaded guilty to plying for hire and having no insurance. He was fined £200 and given six points for having no insurance, £100 for plying for hire and was also ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge.
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