Metropolitan Police arrests illegal chauffeurs in Hyde Park London

A multi-agency crackdown in Hyde Park targeted illegal drivers and towed away

uninsured vehicles in the “summer scam” season

NEVER let it be said that Transport for London do not respond to the concerns of the London private hire industry.

Mustapha, (see opposite) has repeatedly asked the authorities to do something about the ‘summer scam’ and they responded with a crackdown on drivers and operators in Hyde Park.

Officials from Transport for London, Royal Parks Police, Metropolitan Police Traffic Unit, the UK Border Agency, and the Department of Work & Pension cross-examined drivers in executive vehicles after they were pulled over by uniformed ‘spotters’.

NO DRIVER’S LICENCE

One Italian driver, in cool-as-you-like shades, was not sure what all the fuss was about. He worked for a licensed operator and his Chrysler Grand Voyager had been licensed by SGS. He was also legally entitled to work in the UK and not claiming any state benefits. The driver was ticking all the right boxes except for one small problem. He wasn’t licensed to work as a private hire driver. Oops. The driver’s boss then showed up and like his driver, could not understand what the problem was.

He was a licensed operator, taking private hire bookings legally from customers and then taking them from A to B.And the Grand Voyager was insured to be driven by all drivers. A policeman asked; “Did the driver have a private hire driver’s licence? Not as such, no. At last the penny began to drop. And both the driver and operator were in serious trouble. The driver was working illegally and unlicensed and the operator was also in the frame for allowing the Italian to work for him without showing the correct Transport for London documentation. Both men were told to expect a date at a magistrates’ court in the near future and the Voyager was seized and towed to a car pound in Perivale, North London.

NO VEHICLE LICENCE

You would have to have a heart of stone not to fill sympathy for the driver who volunteered himself and his Mercedes for inspection. He wasn’t pulled over by the police ‘spotter’ but had stopped in the small car park in Hyde Park because he thought he might get asked later on and might as well get it over and done with. Very commendable. The various agencies did their stuff and everything appeared to be okay. He was licensed and insured, working legally and not claiming anything he shouldn’t be. But. And there’s always a but. The vehicle’s SGS licence had expired two weeks ago.

The driver didn’t know (the vehicle belonged to his company and at this precise moment he wasn’t actually doing anything wrong. He had no passengers on board but he was insured to drive the vehicle away in a private capacity to be inspected and licensed at a later date.

“What about my passengers I dropped off earlier in Hyde Park and booked to pick up later?” he asked.

Would this be the private hire passengers he had picked up illegally because his hire & reward insurance did not provide legal cover for journeys in a vehicle that hadn’t been licensed at an SGS test centre?

The mistake was an honest one but an offence had been committed and the Mer cedes was seized and sent off to the pound in North London.

NO ANYTHING

When is an embassy chauffeur not a licensed private hire driver? When he is caught in a stretch black limo with passengers he is not insured to carry.

This was the most interesting ‘catch’ of the day and perhaps evidence of what Mustapha had alerted the authorities to in the first place.

The driver of the limousine, which had a German numberplate, said he was employed by the Qatari Embassy and taking several members of the Qatari royal family around London on a day out. But a quick check by the police revealed he did not have any hire and reward insurance. He didn’t need any he said. He was employed by the embassy and the stretch Mercedes was their property and insured by them.

The man played what he must have thought was his trump card and claimed he had diplomatic immunity.

He didn’t and he was left to find his own way home after the car was seized and the Qatari royal family were whisked off in a replacement top-of-the-range black executive BMW.

The Summer Scam

Mustapha has raised the issue of illegal operators and drivers targeting the top-end Arab market in the summer for a number of years and wrote to John Mason, Transport for London’s taxi and private hire director; “Every summer (the Arab tourist season) we find ourselves (the law-abiding, tax-paying and car-insuring PCO licensees) competing with hundreds of people who crawl out of the woodwork to steal (yes, STEAL) what is legally our (which can only be described as the creme de la creme) work. These benefit fraudsters will be driving Arab clients for many weeks in cars that are not licensed or insured for the private hire industry. And some of these cars are hired and fueled with (alleged) stolen credit cards.

We ask you to concentrate on this area and give us the results we have been longing for.”

Regards

Mustapha

OPERATION RESULTS

Day One

A total of 69 vehicles were stopped and resulted in the following outcomes:

* 3 vehicles seized for no insurance (including two drivers employed by the Qatari Embassy, who had no PHV operator’s licence / no PHV vehicle licence / no PHV driver’s licence & no insurance)

* 2 Prohibition Notices (PG9) issued for vehicle defects

* 2 Fixed Penalty Notices for defective tyres

* 5 LT&PH unfit notices issued to PHV vehicles

Day Two

A total of 91 vehicles were stopped and resulted in the following outcomes:

* 3 vehicles seized for no insurance (including one vehicle employed by the Qatari Embassy, who had no PHV operator’s licence / no PHV vehicle licence / no PHV driver’s licence & no insurance

* 2 Fixed Penalty Notices issued for defective tyres

* 2 offences identified by DWP, which will be conducting follow-up investigations

WHAT DOES MUSTAPHA THINK?

The licensed private hire operator said the operation was a good start but added:

“The authorities must take the fight to where the illegal drivers and vehicles are originally hired from. Talk to the embassies officially.

“Until these people have the ‘Riot Act’ read to then they will just carry on. In the Arabic community it is all about word-ofmouth.

“If a document, preferably signed by the mayor himself, was to go to each ambassador then the staff in the lower tiers would really have to watch their step.”

A spokesman for TfL’s taxi and private hire department, said; “We have been informed that these figures have been passed on to the Metropolitan Police Diplomatic Unit to undertake follow-up actions in relation to the Embassy concerned.

“This demonstrates TfL’s ongoing commitment to address concerns from the private hire trade and take action where possible.”

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