Taxi Age Limit: Appeal to Drivers for Support...

In 2006 and again in March 2010 the Department of Transport issued a Best Practice Guide to give Local Authorities and Taxi Licensing bodies’ guidance as to the regulations that they should operate by. 

In this guidance they said with regards to Age Limits ‘‘it is perfectly possible for an older vehicle to be in good condition. So the setting of an age limit beyond which an authority will not license vehicles may be arbitrary and inappropriate’’.

TFL have conducted absolutely no emissions conformity testing 

to show that older taxis are creating more pollution than newer taxis. As a Public Body they are required by law to make reasonable and rational decisions. It is not reasonable or rational to just guess that older taxis are creating more pollution; 

TFL should have conducted proper tests on all ages of taxis to prove that this is the case.

There has actually been independent testing carried out which shows that the opposite is actually true; older taxis do not necessarily create more pollution than newer taxis.

In a recent High Court Judicial Review taken by Taxi Drivers in Newport in Wales against the licensing Authority who were trying to impose an age limit, the age limit on Taxis was ruled to be unlawful by the Judge.

The taxi trade representatives may have conceded to a 15 year age limit because TFL was trying to impose a 10 year age limit. 

This means that they have effectively been coerced into accepting an age limit by thinking that it was the best option available. The fact is that they should not have been forced into accepting an age limit at all. This does not constitute proper consultation.

In addition the taxi trade representatives did not consult with their members at all. In order for this to have been a proper consultation the trade representatives should have conducted proper and fair consultation with their members before accepting any decisions, this was not done.

We have evidence of a driver who runs a T Reg TX1, 

who had it fitted with the Turbo kit by KPM around 3 years ago and has used 100% Bio-fuel ever since. After consultation with a friend from Cambridge University, he decided to have an independent MOT Smoke test because the chap at is under the impression (like everyone else) that the Bio-fuel is not the answer to the Emissions issue.

Below is an image of the smoke test that was taken and as you can see, the pass rate needed to be 1.50 or under. His result shows 0.80. The smoke test operator could not believe how low this figure was as it is better than Euro 4.

The Anderson Shelter would like to take this opportunity to ask drivers to contact the Ombudsman by printing off this letter:

Click Here

And sending it to the address below;

Local Government Ombudsman

Millbank Tower

30 Millbank

London

SW1P 4QP

BBC: Add Insult to Injury...by Thomas the Taxi

Taxi drivers bombarded the Beeb with complaints, when the BBC News (Surrey) website referred to a private hire driver rapist as a Taxi Driver. 

Minicab Rapist Masood Ahmed

After many complaints, some from horrified staff within the BBC (who we would like to thank for their support), the website has now been changed and this perverted TfL licensed Private hire driver has now been given the title of minicab driver.


Unrelenting, the BBC, in reply to some of the drivers said:


Our editorial style guide says that the use of "taxi" and "cab" are both appropriate when referring to your profession. When we run stories that refer to black Taxis we make it clear they are "Hackney carriages". It is also acceptable to refer to a "minicab" as a "taxi". 

Well, again the Licensed Taxi trade (Hackney carriage) would take issue with this statement.

First you are partially right in that the use of "taxi" and "cab" are both appropriate when referring to our profession (being the Licensed Taxi Trade), but not when referring to the private hire industry. Private hire drivers cannot by law refer to or advertise themselves as "Taxi drivers" or even "Cab drivers", as both these terms are reserved under the Hackney carriage Act to apply to licensed Taxi drivers only. This also applies to their vehicles which can only be referred to as Cars or minicabs.  

So if your editorial style guide says otherwise, we suggest you get another guide, a correct one. I'm sure the Public Carriage Office (LTPH) would be highly delighted to consult with you on this matter to avoid insulting London's Taxi trade again.

BBC Reply in full.

Dear Thomas the Taxi,

Thank you for your email to the BBC News Website.

Our editorial style guide says that the use of "taxi" and "cab" are both appropriate when referring to your profession. When we run stories that refer to black Taxis we make it clear they are "Hackney carriages". It is also acceptable to refer to a "minicab" as a "taxi".

However, in this instance as there is only one reference to Ahmed's profession, we have changed "taxi driver" to "minicab driver" to clarify his job.

We always aim to be accurate in our journalism and feedback like yours is always valuable. Thank you again for getting in touch.The BBC News Website

Editorial Comment 

The Anderson Shelter would like to thank everyone who joined in this campaign. This small victory has been won, but we fear if the BBC insist on insulting London's Taxi Drivers, then more militant action will be taken by drivers.
TtT.

New IPhone Will Be 5 Not 4s

Even though it’s not expected for over a month, there’s already a lot of tattle about Apple’s next iPhone. Questions and rumours graze fictional (and occasionally fantastic) spec sheets in search of answers. Will the next iPhone have a dual-core processor? Yes. Will it have NFC? Unlikely. Will it enable time travel? No.

Oh, and what will it be called?

It will be called the iPhone 5. The other option being bandied about is “iPhone 4S”. Which is exactly what the next iPhone won’t be called. Why? Because consumers – that’s you and me – are easily confused.

When a car enthusiast buys a car, he understands the name of his new purchase is a combination of engine capacity, series number and fuel type. But most people buying a mass market car either don’t know that or don’t care.

The same applies to gadgets. When Apple brought out its second iPhone, it was called the iPhone 3G. It had 3G. The small but rapidly growing number of tech enthusiasts evangelising Apple’s new smartphone understood that. With the release of the third iPhone – the iPhone 3GS (the ‘s’ was for ‘speed’), the iPhone really took off with the mainstream. Did many people know what the ‘3GS’ bit meant? No. Did they care? Definitely not.

Apple has infiltrated the mainstream by building computers, phones and – more recently – tablets that people find intuitive and easy to use. It is not a company that likes to cower behind indecipherable product names.

The iPad 2 was not called the iPad S. The labels on Apple’s computers are more akin to the naming conventions of Fiat hatchbacks than Audi saloons. It is not going to confuse and alienate its massive, and still growing, customer base by calling its next phone the iPhone 4S.

If it does, its sixth phone will be the iPhone 5, followed presumably by an iPhone 5S and an iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 would be its eighth phone. Confusing, isn’t it?

Apple’s next phone will be the iPhone 5. In 2012, it’ll be the iPhone 6. And so on. If you can buy an iPhone 4S from Apple this year, we’ll eat our micro SIM cards. Promise.

BBC Wrongly Label Pervert as Taxi Driver, Again...by Thomas the Taxi

Only Licensed Hackney Carriage drivers can legally call themselves Taxi drivers. Only a Licensed Hackney Carriage can be called a Taxi.


Time and time again we have to endure the insults of the TV, radio and printed media, both national and local, as they lump rapists and sexual predators in the same basket with us and call them all Taxi drivers. We have in the past had many campaigns aimed at TV stations plus national and local news papers.

Again this week we have seen two stories from the BBC where they have misled the public, labeling a rapist as a TAXI driver working for a TAXI car firm in London. Its time to make a stand again.

We have complained many times to the BBC, but they insist in lumping us all in the same basket and wrongly label minicab rapist and sexual perverts as Taxi Drivers". 

Could it be they don't wont a clear distinction between us because they use so many minicabs for their staff and don't wont to be seen as putting their staff in danger by sending them home in a vehicle that could be driven by a sexual predator?

Do you value your good name as a Licensed Taxi driver, part of "The Best Taxi Service In The World"?
Do you feel as strong as I do about this?

Then please take the time to fill in this complaint form.

Click on link Here For Complaint Form

Latest BBC insulting articles

Sexual attacker

Ticket for taking a pee 


And just to prove they've done it before
Here's one we prepared earlier.


Residents anger over urinating Taxi Driver

Touting Out Of Hand, No Enforcement....by Thomas the Taxi

Vauxhall Cross contains a collection of night clubs, plus on the Albert Embankment there are a number of cafes and restaurants. For many years now touts have operated in the area, completely unabated by the local authorities or PCO/LTPH enforcement officers. Lines of licensed private hire cars illegally rank along the beginning of the Wandsworth Road on club nights, feeding a hi-viz clipboard Johnnie who accosts clubbers by the gates as they leave the venue.


Just around the corner two clubs, Fire and Holst are served by a brigade of blue vested PHV drivers who stand around touting unchecked. Many complaints have been made by Taxi drivers, but the operation still goes on unchecked.


Last week while driving along Albert Embankment I saw an army of blue vested PH drivers, standing outside the night club just before the one way system. I parked the cab up to see how these scabs were operating. 


There is a clipboard man in full sight of the public, on the pavement. But not content with forming a queue most scabs walk up and down mingling with the crowed trying to tout fares.
 Cars even park illegally on the pavement. While I was there I saw first hand the drivers touting and arguing with each other in a feeding frenzy style bid to "nick a job". So now they are stealing from each other as well as nicking our work.

  

Most of the drivers I saw in this area, seem to work for a Car firm, VVC and had blue vests carrying a number. But there were also other scabs there without vests who were observed picking off the odd job.

Another Touting hot stop has re-emerged outside the late night Bar On Anon. With the bus lane suspended, Diamond cars, the same ones that tout outside Abacus and the Apt Bar in the City, have taken up residency in the bus lane completely unhindered by council or carriage office enforcement.  

St Albans taxi drivers plan second demo

TAXI drivers staged a demonstration yesterday evening, and have already planned another for next week, after claiming the high number of licences which have been handed out in the city is jeopardising their future.

About 50 to 60 members of the St Albans Taxi Association drove in convoy around the city centre for some two hours to get their message across to St Albans District Council.

Irshad Khan, chairman of the group, said the drivers face a daily struggle to pick up trade because there are simply too many cabs on the district’s roads.

He said: “Some days we can be sat in the rank in St Peters Street for over an hour before we get a job, this is our livelihood which is being ruined.

“We’re providing a public service here, and it feels like we are not being treated as fairly as others who provide a public service.

“This is how we feed our families, we depend on this money, but it feels like we are being forced to take action because nobody listens to our problems.”

Mr Khan said even when customers are asked they agree there are too many taxis to service the city centre rank.

Between 1995 and 1999 the council restricted the number of Hackney Carriage licences it issued.

At the time the limit was lifted just 127 licenced taxi’s operated in St Albans and Harpenden. As of February this year, there are 259 licenced drivers on the roads.

In response to this the association met with the district council’s licensing and regulatory committee on July to request a cap to be introduced.

However their calls were rejected and the council said it was following guidance from the Office of Fair Trading and Department of Transport reports on best practice, which recommends licensing authorities do not impose restrictions on the quantity of licensed Hackney Carriage vehicles.

This week’s demo, which began at 4pm, caused traffic chaos in the city centre during the rush hour as the drivers followed in convoy from the city station, down Hatfield Road, into St Peters Street, then Victoria Road and back to the station.

They had boycotted both the St Peters Street and St Albans City Station rank, not picking up customers for the two hours they were demonstrating.

The drivers’ other frustration was with First Capital Connect and its hike in trading permits for the city station.

The association met with the rail company a month ago and St Albans MP Anne Main has vowed to support their plight.

The drivers plan to stage a second demo in St Peters Street next week.

LAW REFORM: TAXIS AND PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLES – REGULATION

Hot on the heals of the HoC's Taxis and Private Hire vehicle: The Road To reform, comes the Law commission no330/eleventh program of Law reform for Taxis and private hire...

Taxis and private hire vehicles - regulation

Status: The consultation for this project is due to open in June 2012We are reviewing the existing framework of taxi and private hire vehicle regulation with a view to preparing proposals for consultation.

Taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs) are an important part of local transport. They operate in highly regulated markets where safety and quality control are paramount. Licensing covers key areas such as the quality of services, the fitness of drivers, fare regulation and restrictions on the number of licenses issued.

The current law on taxis and PHVs has been criticised for being complex and outdated.

One problem is the multiplicity of legislation. Taxis, which can “ply for hire” so customers can stop them in the street, have different rules to PHVs which can only be pre-booked. In turn each of the taxi and PHV trades is regulated by multiple statutes. There are also different legal systems along geographical lines distinguishing Plymouth, London and the rest of England and Wales.  Whereas some distinctions are clearly justified others are less clearly so.

Some of the legislation, particularly relating to taxis, is archaic. The key statutes date back to Victorian times and refer to “hackney carriages” when taxis were literally horse-drawn vehicles. Case law and guidance are indispensable in interpreting the law. This also makes the legislation less able to reflect more modern technology like the telephone, internet and GPS technology. 

The project

The project examines the legal framework relating to taxis and PHVs with a view to making it simpler and more modern. We aim to publish proposals for reform in June 2012. This will be followed by a three month consultation period where we invite the public to respond to our proposals. We plan to publish a final report with our recommendations and draft bill by mid-2014.

The Law Commission
(LAW COM No 330)

ELEVENTH PROGRAMME OF LAW REFORM

TAXIS AND PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLES – REGULATION

2.72 Taxi-cabs (“hackney carriages”) are a highly regulated market, and have been since Victorian times (or earlier – some controls were first imposed under the Stuarts). Private hire vehicles have been regulated since the 1970s. There are distinct legal systems for London, Plymouth and the rest of England and Wales; and different systems for taxi-cabs and private hire vehicles. Outside London, local authorities are the licensing authorities for both taxi-cabs and private hire vehicles. In London, licensing is now the responsibility of Transport for London. Licensing authorities regulate the quantity of taxi-cabs and the fares they can charge, and, for both taxi-cabs and private hire vehicles, the quality of services, must be licensed, and, in respect of private hire vehicles, there must also be a licensed operator.

2.73 The first level of reform would be to reduce the sheer bulk, complexity and inconsistency of the regulatory systems. Central concepts like “plying for hire” have caused considerable problems in the past. There are pointless geographical inconsistencies on such matters as whether a taxi-cab driver needs a separate private hire license, and whether the vehicle can be used for leisure purposes by its owner/driver. Secondly, there is a need to modernise to reflect technological change – private hire licensing, for instance, is posited on a geographically fixed operator with premises where bookings are made. Finally, the fundamental features of the regulatory system are in need of reconsideration – the separate systems for taxi-cabs and private hire vehicles, the identity of the licensing authorities, the number and nature of licenses and whether all forms of regulation are still necessary.

2.74 This project engages economic and regulatory theory. It will be fundamentally derogatory, in the sense that it will seek to question the necessity for the various strands of the current regulatory regime, and seek to reformulate those that are necessary in the light of modern understandings of the most efficient and efficacious forms of regulation.

2.75 The taxi and private hire vehicle market had an annual turnover of above £2.2 billion in 2003. It is likely that a modernised and simplified system of licensing will reduce the costs of the licensing system to both local authorities and market participants themselves. However, the realisation of these potential savings would depend on decisions to be taken on the key regulation reform issues which will constitute the substance of the project.

2.76 We expect the project to take three years, with a consultation period in the second half of 2012.

Mayor Waffles On Regarding Greener Taxis...By Thomas the Taxi.

At a recent meeting with the Mayor, Mike Tuffrey asked a question about the proposed financial incentive scheme to encourage London Taxi Drivers to purchase greener vehicles!

But with no sign of a green or greener Taxi on the horizon, Boris makes it clear there will be no financial help for drivers as of yet, to upgrade to new vehicles as the age limit restriction approaches. 

Question byMike Tuffrey

The “Update to the Air Quality Plan for the Daily Mean PM10 Limit Value for Greater London Agglomeration Zone, UK: June 2011” document on the Defra website, states that “the Mayor has announced a financial incentives scheme to encourage drivers to purchase the cleanest taxis”. Can you provide details of this scheme, including when it will start, what the scale of the financial incentives will be, and its objectives?

Answer by Boris Johnson

I am committed to improving London’s air quality and recognise the important role that taxis must play in this area. The objective of any financial scheme is to encourage cabbies to purchase cleaner, practical and affordable taxis for use in London. TfL is working to finalise the exact details surrounding the scheme at this time and will announce them later in the year.

TfL and my team continue to work very closely with taxi manufacturers to understand their plans for introducing low-emission taxis. Taxi manufacturers are still looking at design and production time lines but, given the complexity involved, manufactures are unable to state when such vehicles will be available for sale to drivers.

...............................

LTC and Chinese manufactures who supply most of London's Taxis have repeatedly said they have no plans to replace the TX4 engine with a cleaner green one. More waffle from Boris I'm afraid!  

And So It Begins: MPs call for overhaul of 'out of date' taxi laws

Rules on where taxis and minicabs can operate need "urgent and wholesale reform", a report by MPs said today.

New legislation was required to deal with the issue of "cross-border hire" - where taxis and minicabs operate outside the district in which they are licensed, the report from the House of Commons Transport Committee said.

The MPs said licensing authorities should be allowed to impose a condition that requires private hire vehicles and drivers to operate principally from within their licensing district.

Improvement: Transport minister Norman Baker says it is an area of law that is 'very much in need of modernisation'

Also, local councils should be allowed to issue fixed penalty notices to out-of-town drivers found to have worked or sought work for a specified period of time within a district where they do not hold a licence. The Government has asked the Law Commission to look into the matter.

But the committee's report today said: "We are not persuaded that the Government is right to refer the matter to the Law Commission.

"We recommend that the Government should engage with the (taxi) trade, local authorities and users about the objectives of future legislation and commit to reform the law in this Parliament."

Launching the report today, the committee's chairman Louise Ellman MP said: "The rules for taxis date back to 1847 and still refer to horse-drawn carriages. The rules for public hire vehicles (minicabs) were set down in 1976 and are now out of date due to the growth of mobile phones and the internet.

"The age of this legislation and the complexity of case law accumulated in this area makes the need to overhaul the law on these matters irresistible."

Transport minister Norman Baker said: "I agree that the legislation around taxis and private hire vehicles could be improved.

"As I said when I gave evidence on this to the Transport Select Committee (TSC) in March, I had asked the Law Commission to consider taxi and private hire vehicle licensing as this seems to be an innovative and sensible way to make progress on an area of law that is very much in need of modernisation.

"We will be responding more fully to the TSC's report in due course."

Article from the Evening Standard

Police Officer Cut From Car After Collision With Rickshaw Bike

A police officer had to be cut out of his London Metropolitan patrol car following a collision with a rickshaw bike in Oxford Street, which left three men injured.

The roof of the car had to be cut away in order to get the trapped police officer out.

The three officers in the car remained in the vehicle until paramedics arrived at the scene. Firemen cut free the officer who was seated in the back of the car, who was then transported to hospital. 

His injuries at this time are unknown.

A rickshaw was reportedly involved in the collision.

The impact of the accident left the street covered with oil and littered with parts from the police car, attracting a crowd to the entrance to Oxford Circus Tube station.

Boris's Barclay Bikes: But How Green Are They?

Last year, Laura Cox wrote an article after a freedom of Information request about just how green "Boris bikes" actually are. In the article she lists the vehicle bank that is used in support the mayors  "Green Transport ". She also lists the CO2 emissions of the trucks, vans and cars, which show them to be no more than production line models, no different from ones used daily by businesses and public alike.


Initially the plan was for 10 electric low emission "green" vehicles to redistribute the bikes along with 20 staff. However, It quickly became clear that 10 vehicles couldn't cope, especially around mainline stations where the docking bays are either full or empty. The Alke electric vehicles are only available for a few hours in the day and have proved totally inadequate for the job. 
So, undercover of darkness a whole fleet of Trucks, vans, Mondeo's and Fiestas take to the street. 

Badly ridden these bikes cause massive congestion.

The worrying factor here would be that hot on the heals of his Cleaner Air Quality program, London's Mayor Boris never once considered using Hybrid engines in his trucks, vans or cars.


The Taxi trade in London has lost a massive amount of corporate account work, as banks and big businesses seek to be perceived as greener. So any facilitator who can provide transport to their staff with a "Green" image is given a contract.


Even National Heath Service cheats Lewis Day who claimed £250,000 for ghost rides, (ones that never actually took place), which they subsequently paid back (but only after being caught) are given prestige accounts across the city as they use the Toyota Prius. Another company with large corporate accounts is the Green tomato company who also use the Prius.    

But is all the hype about the Prius a positive fact?

Lifetime energy usage

In 2008 the British government and British media, requested that Toyota release detailed figures for the energy use and CO₂ emissions resulting from the building and disposal of the Prius. Toyota has not supplied the detailed data they requested to support claims that the lifetime energy usage of the Prius (including the increased environmental cost of manufacture and disposal of the nickel-metal hydride battery) is outweighed by lower lifetime fuel consumption.

CO₂ advertising claims

In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority, an independent body charged with policing the rules of the advertising industry, ruled that a television advert for the Toyota Prius should not be broadcast again in the same form, having breached rules concerning misleading advertising. The advert claimed the Prius "emits up to one tonne less CO₂ per year", while on-screen text included "1 tonne of CO₂ less than an equivalent family vehicle with a diesel engine. Average calculated on 20,000 km a year.". 

Points of contention were the vehicles chosen for comparison, whether "up to one tonne less" adequately communicated the reductions could be lower, and whether the distance used was appropriate: 
20,000 km per year is around the average annual driving distance for a USA car, while in the UK its 13,440 km.

An earlier complaint to the New Zealand Advertising Standards Authority, in 2003, was also upheld. It ruled that Toyota was in breach of the New Zealands advertising standards code of ethics, by claiming "up to 89% fewer smog-forming emissions.” 
The figure was based on comparison with Euro 3 standards, which most new cars also met comfortably at the time.

Toyota Prius proves a gas guzzler in a race with the BMW 520d click here

500 series BMW beats Prius in fuel trial click here

Another One Bites The Dust: How Much Longer Must We Endue These Deathtraps

Early on Friday morning around 3.20 am, while taking a passenger along Shaftesbury Avenue. As I crossed over Cambridge Circus, my path was obstructed by two rickshaws in front of me racing each other, side by side Ben Hur style (both with passengers on Board, one with no visable lights).

Then suddenly the outside rickshaw bike lost control and capsized, ejecting a young girl directly onto the roadway in front of my Taxi. 

I had to stand on my brakes but managed to pull up just in time. 
I got out of my cab and tried to wave down a passing police car and was astonished when they drove passed and didn't stop.

Meanwhile the Rickshaw riders were lifting the bike off the girl who at this stage was crying and howling and I could see blood oozing from a nasty head wound.

I then rang 999 and requested the police and an ambulance to the scene. As I spoke to the emergency service operator, the two rickshaw bike drivers lifted the girl to the pavement so that the traffic could move again. 
I'm not sure if the emergency services turned up, because as the road was now clear, I felt I had to complete my fare.

This morning I have just read that three Arab girls fell out of one of these dangerous contraptions in Knightsbridge. This is complete madness and its just a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or even killed. The fact that it hasn't happened already is a testament to the driving skills of the motorists who, at the cost of causing congestion are giving these third world deathtraps a wide birth.


Witness account and Photo by Brendan Fitzpatrick 

Killer On The Knowledge: The Sequel...By Thomas the Taxi

We have now heard from a reliable source at LTPH that , unbelievably, the Home Office have decided to apply a strict interpretation of the legislation appertaining to CRB checks and have therefore advised LTPH that they shouldn't be requesting enhanced disclosures for all taxi and private hire drivers. Only taxi and private hire drivers that specifically work with children or vulnerable adults (such as on schools contracts) should be requesting enhanced checks. To read the complete response, please click here


This is completely unacceptable and comes at a time when sexual assault and rape figures are through the roof.

By removing enhanced CRB checks we will see the incidence of sexual attacks rise to an unprecedented level. 

Time to get the stickers back out?

We have known for some time that these checks have not been carried out to a satisfactory standard and as a consequence, we have seen a child sexually assaulted by a council employed school run minicab driver. We are constantly being informed by the media, of violent rapes in licensed private hire vehicles, carried out by sexual predators who constantly tout for work outside clubs and bars, safe in the knowledge that enforcement is at an all time low.


These checks are the public's final safety net and were instrumental in catching the "Killer on the Knowledge" Shamsul Haque which led to two major demonstrations in September 2009, that paralysed much of north London. 

The first demo was organised by the RMT and ran in parallel with an expose in the Evening Standard. After TfL refused to change its stance on the issue, a subsequent United Trade demo was organised with a threat of repeat action every week until TfL reconsidered.


We have to take a lesson from history, the trade must unite against this ill conceived action from the Home Office and take suitable action.


We have been losing the war against PH touts and the licensing authority for one reason and that's fragmentation. This has to end now if we are to turn around this dangerous decision from the Home Office. 


TAXI DRIVERS MUST PUT ASIDE TRIBAL ATTITUDES AND UNITE NOW! 


If you are in any trade org or Union, phone up your chairman and ask what are they going to do about this serious threat to our trades good name?

Relaxing CRB checks will lead to more rapes

The Anderson Shelter would also like to say that this situation hasn't been helped by Peter Hendy's constant denial of the rape and assault figures, saying they were the result of a militant Taxi drivers blog.

Bogus Manchester Taxi Driver, Is Jailed For Nine Years.

Jailed: Predatory sex beast who disguised his car as a taxi to pick up and rape a young woman on night out in Manchester

Kacem attacked victim,  then calmly drove her back to hotel

A predatory rapist disguised his car as a taxi to lure a young woman and violently attack her.

Amine Kacem, 24, prowled Manchester city centre looking for victims in a car on which he had deliberately put a large yellow sticker to make it look like a private hire vehicle. The sex attacker, also known as Nazim Hamido, abducted and twice raped the woman after she got in the back of the car on Sackville Street.

Kacem, who was on his first ever visit to Manchester, then calmly drove her back to her hotel. Judge Andrew Blake at Manchester Crown Court said he believed Kacem had deliberately posed as a taxi driver and put a ‘considerable amount of planning’ into the crime.

Jailing Kacem, who buried his head in his hands, the judge told him: "You targeted the victim, whom plainly you correctly identified as being drunk. You showed her no mercy."

The victim was left so psychologically scarred she washed herself with bleach after the attack.

Kacem fled the country for his native France after the attack.

The court heard how a nationwide appeal to track him down was launched and he returned to Britain months later after his girlfriend begged him to come back.

But Kacem did not hand himself in. Instead, he stole a bundle of banknotes from a customer at a Bureau de Change in London because he thought he needed cash for a lawyer.

When he was arrested for that offence, his DNA was taken and he was exposed as a rapist on the run, 18 months after the attack.

Kacem, of Golders Green, London, was jailed for nine years for the rapes. He claimed he was innocent, saying he had consensual sex with the woman and that someone else must have raped her afterwards.

The court heard she had become separated from pals when she was picked up by Kacem in the early hours of March 27, 2009. She told court that the memory of his vehicle with the large yellow sticker had come to her in a flashback.

Neil Fryman, prosecuting, said: "She got in the vehicle thinking she was safe."

The woman suffered a fractured right wrist in the attack, was left badly cut and bruised.

For several months, she feared that she had contracted HIV in the attack.

Mr Fryman said: "Psychologically, she has been affected because she’s now virtually housebound. She has been washing herself with bleach from time to time."

Howards Solicitors

Press release – Manchester and Salford

14^th July 2011

The authorities need to act decisively now to restore confidence in taxi trade say professionals after another non-licensed taxi driver sent down for rape.

LOCAL TAXI LAW expert Peter Eatherall has slammed the lack of licence checking in Manchester as another rapist is sent down for crimes committed while posing as a cab driver.

Eatherall, a partner of specialist taxi and criminal legal practice Howards Solicitors, believes more regular enforcement of taxi licensing could reduce the high incidences of violent crime committed by illegitimate taxi drivers.

The recent case of Amine Kacem is the latest of a spate of serious offences by non-licensed taxi drivers.  Kacem deliberately put a large yellow sticker on his car to make it look like a private hire vehicle. 

He received a 9-year sentence for rape this week after his unsuspecting victim believed that it was safe to accept a ride.  Only DNA evidence gathered from an unrelated offence of theft 18 months later led police to Kacem.   

Manchester does not have a good record.  Last year there were 98 bogus cab related rapes and sexual assaults according to Greater Manchester Police.  London with a population four times as big suffered 143 by comparison.

RAINN, an anti-rape charity based in the US states that as many as 60% of rapes go unreported.

Les Reid a representative for Manchester based taxi co-operative Mr Black Cab, which runs 70 vehicles, comments: “No-one has checked my badge in over 25 years.  We need Manchester’s Licensing Unit to be highly proactive, so that the public feels safe.  The horrific cases in the news tarnish the name of all law abiding professional taxi drivers who want to simply offer a great service and make a decent living for their families.”

Peter Eatherall, who ran his own cab firms before transferring his industry knowledge to law comments: “Stricter enforcement of taxi licences is crucial to deterring and reducing serious crime in the taxi trade.”

“The public and trade need to see more visible and proactive activities to drive unlicensed taxi drivers from the roads.  More spot checks by enforcement officers from the local authority as well as the police, with the results published and on view, would be a good start to restoring confidence.”

Reid states: “There are 1,000 Hackney cab drivers and 2,000 private hire professionals within the city boundaries, not including Greater Manchester.  Anyone of them would gladly help the police to significantly reduce the issue.”

Source= http://www.mrblackcab.proboards.com/