An individual has been denied a taxi licence by Middlesbrough Council for “conspiring/assisting unlawful immigration into an EU member state”.
The applicant was convicted of the offence in 2013, and sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, according to minutes of a Middlesbrough Council licensing committee.
The minutes said: “The applicant appeared before committee as a result of a previous criminal conviction recorded on his DBS certificate”. He had allowed his brother to live in a flat which he owned, “for which his brother paid rent to him” and the brother was allowed “to work in the applicant’s business, despite discovering that his brother was in the country illegally and had false documents”.
The applicant “felt obliged to cover for his brother out of family loyalty, and admitted to lying to immigration officers and lying when the matter went to court,” says the document. During the committee meeting, he also claimed that he didn’t know of his brother’s immigration status until after he had arrived in the UK and that he did not pay any money for his brother’s false documents.
In spite of the committee’s refusal to grant the man a private hire vehicle driving licence, it was confirmed that the applicant currently holds a licence with Wolverhampton Council, due to expire in November 2025, and has previously held a licence with Darlington Council from 2018 until 2021.
“The committee considered that misleading immigration officers and the court on numerous occasions highlighted that the applicant was not a fit and proper person to hold a licence,” the minutes explained.
The minutes also stated that it was expected “that a licenced private hire driver was expected to be a trustworthy person and a serious view was taken of any conviction for dishonesty”. It went on to assert “that a licence would normally be refused if an applicant had been convicted of a serious offence involving dishonesty”. The committee deemed that the applicant’s previous conviction was “one of serious dishonesty”.
The applicant had the right to appeal the decision to the Magistrates Court within 21 days from the date of notice of the decision.
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