Source: News & Star
A Carlisle cab driver with a string of speeding and other motoring offences has been stripped of his taxi licence.
Raymond Earl, of Webster Crescent, Currock, was judged not to be “fit and proper” to drive a cab when he appeared before a city council regulatory panel.Councillor David Morton, who chairs the panel, said: “We feel strongly that we have a duty to protect members of the public who use taxis.”
Mr Earl, 53, was summoned to appear following a speeding offence on December 16 when his taxi was caught travelling at 43mph in a 30mph zone.He had a child on board on a contract for Cumbria Country Council social services.It was his sixth speeding offence since 1995. He now has nine points on his driving licence, three short of automatic disqualification.
Mr Earl told councillors he regretted his actions but said nothing else in his defence. He has twice had his taxi licence suspended.It was revoked altogether last February but he appealed to Carlisle magistrates who instead suspended his licence for eight weeks and told him to re-take the taxi drivers’ test.His licence was returned in July after he passed the test at the second attempt.
He now has the option of appealing to the magistrates’ court again.In addition to the speeding offences, Mr Earl was fined £50 in 2003 for not wearing a seatbelt and received a fixed-penalty fine in 2008 for using a mobile phone while driving.
His taxi licence was suspended for four weeks in 2000 following speeding offences. And again for two weeks in 2002 after his taxi was spotted waiting unlawfully outside Mood nightclub and carrying out a dangerous three-point turn by traffic lights in Botchergate.
First published at 11:23, Thursday, 21 January 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
