An uninsured taxi driver caught illegally plying for hire has been hit with a £1,270 court bill.
The Knutsford Guardian reports that Madeh Ahmadi, from Handforth, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to plying for hire whilst he was not licensed as a public hackney carriage at Liverpool and Knowsley Magistrates’ Court.
The 38-year-old was caught operating on Church Street in Liverpool, whilst driving a Wolverhampton City Council licensed private hire vehicle, on September 9, last year, the court heard on March 28.
The defendant also pleaded guilty to driving without third party insurance on the same day.
Ahmadi was fined £400 for each offence and ordered to pay £320 victim surcharge and £150 costs.
His driving licence was endorsed with eight points.
Magistrates took his guilty pleas into account when imposing the sentence.
The defendant was given until June 28 to pay the £1,270 court bill.
A dad-of-two threatened a taxi driver and told him "I've got a knife in my bag" before breaking his wing mirror.
According to the Liverpool Echo, Dr Gareth Carey, 43, threatened a taxi driver and kicked off his car's wing mirror after failing to pay his £28 fare on June 25 last year.
The business development manager, who has multiple PhDs in psychology and sociology, had been on a night out on Hanover Street in Liverpool City Centre when he flagged down the taxi to drive him home to Birkenhead at around 11.30pm.
However, when they arrived at his home, he failed to pay his bill using an app on his phone. An argument ensued, and the taxi driver decided to drive him to Merseyside Police headquarters.
When they arrived, Carey said: "I'm going to do you in. I've got a knife in my bag, you b*****d".
He then exited the cab and kicked it, breaking a wing mirror and causing £745 worth of damage.
He later made a full admission to police, telling them he had been drinking rum and "on a scale of one to 10, he was a nine".
He admitted having a knife in his laptop bag, which had been given to him as a present after he completed a boating qualification.
Janhaka Siri, defending, said: "Carey is mortified by his actions and is extremely remorseful and ashamed of what he did that evening."
He said Carey, in his drunken state, did not realise he had not paid the taxi driver what he was owed, and didn't know what was going on as he was driven to the police station, where the crime took place.
He pleaded guilty to criminal damage and possession of a knife.
Judge David Swinnerton said the dad-of-two "should have known better".
He said: "It was a foolish and reckless way to behave. It's terrifying to be threatened by a passenger and that's something taxi drivers put up with far too often. But I accept I can treat this as a one-off act of stupidity that you will never repeat."
He sentenced him to an 18 month community order, 10 rehabilitation days, and 100 hours of unpaid work. He also ordered him to pay £783 compensation to the taxi driver and £500 in court costs.
Source: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/dad-who-couldnt-pay-taxi-29046297
A private hire driver was shocked to find he'd been charged more than £500 for two drop offs at Newcastle International Airport.
According to ChronicleLive, Trevor Storey, 63, was charged £253 instead of £4 when he dropped a customer off on April 14. The machine didn't issue a receipt and Trevor failed to notice the eyewatering charge.
It wasn't until he was charged £308 just days later and the transaction was flagged by his bank that he realised there was an issue.
Trevor, from Newcastle, contacted the airport who said his exit had been missed on two occasions and resulted in the high fee.
Trevor told ChronicleLive: "I work for Uber and everything is done by card, I don't handle any cash. I swiped my card and they don't give a receipt a lot of the time.
"The first time it was £253, then on April 19 I dropped someone off and Uber gave me another job at the airport so I swiped my card again.
"I got a receipt but just assumed it would be for £4. But when I finished I was contacted by my bank and there was a new transaction for £308 and I looked and I did have a charge.
"I phoned the bank and explained what had happened, but they said they couldn't stop the transaction and I would need to speak to the airport. When I was speaking to the guy on the phone he said: 'Do you realise they did the same to you on April 14 and took £253'."
Trevor, who has been a taxi driver for 25 years, contacted the airport who were quick to refund his cash. He said: "They said my exit had been missed on two occasions. The woman was very quick to arrange for the money to be refunded."
But Trevor fears it could be happening to others who are unaware and wants people to know there could be an issue.
He said: "I do my banking once a month so it would have come to light then. But imagine the amount of people this could happen to and they wouldn't realise.
"It could have been someone's last pound that they took and left them with nothing, if they had bills to pay. It would cause a lot of hassle, stress and anxiety.
"The airport won't get in touch with people to say they have been overcharged."
A spokeswoman for Newcastle International Airport said errors like this are not specific to their car park but present at all car parks that use ANPR systems
She added: "As with all automatic number plate recognition systems, occasionally a vehicle's registration plate cannot be read - this is often due to poor weather or number plate inconsistencies.
"In this case, the system traced the previous time of entry to the car park to determine the charge. Should an incorrect payment amount display on the barrier, we advise passengers to use the intercom to contact a member of the car parking team who will be more than happy to assist."
Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/uber-drivers-warning-after-being-29050740
A shocked private driver has told how an Army horse “smashed” into his car in central London raising part of it into the air.
The Mirror reports that there were chaotic scenes after seven Household Cavalry horses got loose with four soldiers thrown off them during an extended exercise in Belgravia on Wednesday 24 April.
Ambulance crews treated four people in three separate incidents in the space of ten minutes as the animals ran amok.
The drama began near Buckingham Palace Road where witnesses saw a serviceman thrown from his horse, and one of the loose animals smashing into a private hire vehicle waiting outside the Clermont Hotel, shattering the windows.
Farez, who was driving the PHV, has said how he had just dropped off a passenger when suddenly he was confronted by a horse that ran into the car and damaged it, but fortunately he was not harmed. The people carrier was left with large dents and shattered windows after the incident.
Farez did not see the horses and so was left “shocked” by the sudden impact and he believes that it was a white horse that was seen bloodied, that hit his car.
“I was just sitting in the car to pick up my passenger, but on the other side there was a [horse] but I didn't see. When the horse hit my car then I saw, it was like a smash,” he told LBC. “I was okay but it (the car) is damaged.”
He said how the force of the impact led to one side of the car being raised up.
He continued: “I saw about three, four horses, I think the white horse hit my car.”
It is understood that three Household Cavalry personnel have been assessed at hospital for their injuries, but they were not seriously hurt.
Two horses were seen running in the road near Aldwych, one of which appeared to be covered in blood, and later near the Limehouse tunnel, before they were recaptured by City of London Police.
A horse also crashed into a parked double-decker tour bus, smashing the windscreen.
Roland, a worker for tour bus company Tootbus, described the chaotic scenes near Victoria. "I saw horses come from the bus station in front of Victoria run around in a frenzy," he said. "People were running around to avoid them - it was total mayhem."
A second tour bus worker, named only as Mr Mahmood, said: "One of the horses bumped into a bus, then everything got out of control. I saw two horses without riders gallop away.
"One rider managed to calm his horse down. An ambulance went to assist another rider who had been injured."
An Army spokesperson said: "A number of military working horses became loose during routine exercise this morning. All of the horses have now been recovered and returned to camp. A number of personnel and horses have been injured and are receiving the appropriate medical attention."
Pictures and videos of two of the animals running loose around London were shared on social media, one of which showed a black 4x4 with blue lights following the horses between Tower Bridge and Limehouse tunnel.
Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/taxi-drivers-shock-after-loose-32661128
Around 500 drivers who work for Veezu in Sheffield and Rotherham gathered outside Veezu’s Sheffield offices on Tuesday 23 April, in protest at new commission rates the company has imposed.
The changes came after Veezu acquired local taxi company City Taxis in 2023.
Drivers said that a previously flat 20 per cent commission rate had been replaced with differing rates dependent on the total number of jobs drivers complete.
One driver told The Star: “Since Veezu took over things have started to change. The drivers feel that they’ve been manipulated, they’ve been used as experiments for the new fare structure to get money out of them.
“Something that doesn’t need fixing, shouldn’t have changed.
“If we go to Manchester Airport, that job would take us out of Sheffield and we’ll only be able to do one or two more trips in the day. It takes a long time.
“Now, Veezu’s structure has [their take calculated] on the number of jobs, so depending on the amount of jobs we do, they take their cut on a sliding scale, so if you do 12-13 jobs in a week, it starts at 35 per cent. That’s a staggering amount.
“So if we do Manchester Airport for £85, Veezu used to take £17 of that. At 35 per cent, that goes to £29.75.
“If you take all the costs away - fuel costs, insurance, the time spent - the driver is left with about £30 for four hours work. That’s hardly the minimum wage.”
During the ongoing cost of living crisis, Veezu has intentionally brought its fares down - in a move drivers say was to undercut Uber. However, at the same time as lowering the fares, Veezu is now said to be taking higher percentage cuts of those fares than ever before.
Another driver said: “Our fares have come down, the price of fuel has gone up, insurance has gone up this year by 25-30 per cent, what we’re paying to them is too high and we’re not saving very much.
“I’ve been doing this job 20 years, I was better off 20 years ago than I am now... Veezu is here because of the drivers, the drivers are what make Veezu, if the drivers weren’t here Veezu wouldn’t be making any money.”
Sheffield’s Veezu drivers say they are facing an increasingly difficult situation and whilst the company says it acted in the interests of customers - it seems to have come at the expense of their drivers.
“Veezu lowered the fares to look out for the customers saying that it’s the cost of living,” a third driver said, “But we have our cost of living, we’ve got bills to pay... if their fares are going down, we want [their percentage] to go down. That’s all, that’s fair.”
GMB Union organiser Bob McNeil said: "At the same time, [Veezu] are bringing more people into the business.
"The work has not increased, but they are bringing more people in, so again it is having a massive impact on the wage that [the drivers] can earn and they are saying they can't afford it and they are struggling to live."
The Star was told drivers need to complete at least 80 journeys in a week to see a difference. In order to reach the lowest rate on the scale (roughly 12 per cent to Veezu) they must complete more than 100.
A spokesperson for Veezu said: "As self-employed drivers running their own businesses, several of the drivers have proposed commercial terms which Veezu is considering and will be discussing with them in the coming weeks.
"As self-employed individuals in business, the drivers operate across several different licensed operators in Sheffield and can decide which operator they use.
“Veezu hopes that the drivers continue to operate via our system, but we recognise this is a commercial market and that drivers will choose to drive with different and multiple operators."
Police have released mugshots of three people who tried to force an Uber driver to give them money. The driver was racially abused and beaten up by one of the three.
Changes to taxi fares on the Isle of Man have seen maximum prices rise and the late-night tariff pulled forward by an hour.
A taxi driver has suffered several head injuries after being attacked by two passengers in robbery attempt.
Aberdeen International Airport is holding talks with taxi drivers following strikes over proposed changes at the Dyce hub.
London cabbies call for more government support to help with transition to electric and have teamed up with InstaVolt, the UK’s leading rapid charging network to show how this could be done.
Madeh Ahmadi, from Handforth, pleaded guilty to plying for hire whilst he was not licensed as a hackney carriage at Liverpool and Knowsley Magistrates’ Court.
Dr Gareth Carey threatened a taxi driver and kicked off his car's wing mirror after failing to pay his £28 fare.
Trevor Storey, 63, was charged £253 instead of £4 when he dropped a customer off on April 14. The machine didn't issue a receipt and Trevor failed to notice the eyewatering charge.
A private hire driver has told how a Household Cavalry horse "smashed" into his people carrier lifting part of the car into the air, as seven horses got loose during an exercise and ran amok.
A previously flat 20 per cent commission rate has been replaced with differing rates dependent on the total number of jobs drivers complete.