MIDDLESBROUGH COUNCIL REJECTS TAXI LICENCE APPLICATION OVER IMMIGRATION CONVICTION

A man has been denied a taxi licence by Middlesbrough Council due to a previous criminal conviction related to immigration offences.

The individual was convicted in 2013 of "conspiring/assisting unlawful immigration into an EU member state" and sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment.

According to the minutes of a recent licensing committee meeting: “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.

Despite the applicant's claims of being unaware of his brother's immigration status, the committee deemed his actions to be a serious act of dishonesty, making him unfit to hold a taxi licence.

The decision by Middlesbrough Council can be appealed to the Magistrates' Court within 21 days.

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