Source: This is Hampshire
A CABBIE has had his licence revoked for “shocking” behaviour towards three elderly passengers.It is the first use of new “taxicam” evidence by Southampton City Council.
Elyas Haidari, 24, from Woolston, was hauled before the council’s licensing committee after he was recorded hurling abuse at the partiallysighted women.At one point during an expletive- laden rant, he was heard to say: “You die tonight.”
Mr Haidari, who had held a licence for seven months, was also heard repeatedly ordering them to “shut up” and refused to give them any help when he told them to “get out” of his private hire car.The terrifying journey to a day centre was captured on a camera installed inside the vehicle.Committee chairman Councillor Brian Parnell called Mr Haidari’s behaviour “truly shocking”.Cllr Parnell claimed without the camera the incident would not have come before his committee.Councillors voted in August to make it compulsory for specified cameras to be fitted to all new hackney carriage taxis and private hire cars.
Mr Haidari’s car was among the 150 or so of 800 vehicles which already have them.Cllr Parnell said: “While incidents such as this in the city are fortunately rare, it undoubtedly shows the merit of having cameras fitted to all licensed vehicles in the city and is a ringing endorsement of the council’s recent decision to make the fitting of cameras mandatory.”Council licensing officers downloaded the recording from the camera’s “black box”within hours of the incident being reported to them.
The council praised the cooperation and response by Radio Taxis following the complaint about their driver, who was promptly dismissed.Company chairman Clive Johnson, who has personally launched a legal challenge against the decision to make cameras compulsory, said: “We were very upset and concerned about what happened.”But he insisted: “We didn’t need the camera evidence.“We acted on the information from the statements from the three ladies.“We supplied all the information to the police. We didn’t need a camera to tell us something had gone disastrously wrong.”He added: “We are not against cameras, we’re against being forced to have them.”The £625 cameras, which the council sells at subsidy for £250 excluding VAT and fitting, take still pictures and record continuous audio once they are triggered by a door opening.Drivers are also able to trigger a burst of pictures if they push a panic button.A police spokesman said an officer spoke to Mr Haidari’s three passengers although no official statements were taken and they did not wish to make an official complaint.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I Read this article with the shocking dismay that a person with clearly a disturbed confrontational nature was passed by a doctor to be medically fit in the first place, but then again it may not have been the “Drivers” own doctor who would have had the ability to check this persons mental stability, because clearly by the age of 24 Eylas Haidari had developed an unstable mind in relation to other human beings, or maybe it was just the old or disabled who knows.
The second point about this article is the fact that a subsidy of £425, but VAT and fitting cost extra, having said that though 15% VAT is only £37.50 meaning £287.50p plus fitting, if the cameras are of good quality should mean all Local Council`s can apply for the “Government Grant” or was the “Subsidy” out of the Local Council Tax is the question I would like to have answered personally, because once again is the Hackney Carriage & Private Hire Industries being denighed these “Government Allowances” that our Local Council`s should be claiming on our behalf.
This article is just to create a discussion debate, but thanks for your humour J.T.H. in relation to a previous posting on another subject matter.
Thanks
As a regular user of taxis I have no problem with the cameras being operated during any journey I may take. However what about business people having conversations on the way to meetings? I know my CEO will frequently make calls en route to train stations or airports. Is there an off button to the recording?
Is this process of filming /recording actually violating the passenger’s civil liberties?
@Val Woodward,
If civil liberties are an issue, then i am afraid that they are violated around 200+ times per day byy cctv etc in the street, on public transport, mobile phone message and voice recording and storage etc etc, you could go on for ever!