COUNCIL NEWS
TAXI FIRM PROSECUTED
3 July 2008Public Relations
A local taxi firm has been prosecuted for one of their staff refusing to take the assistance dog of a blind customer in their cab. The incident was reported in March 2008 to the Licensing Authority Bedford Borough Council and the private vehicle hire firm pleaded guilty in court. The operator refused to send a car to pick up the blind man from outside Sight Concern after insisting it wasn’t disability discrimination.
The case was heard by Bedford Magistrates Court on 26th June 2008 where Crown Cars (Bedford) Limited pleaded guilty to the offence of refusing to accept a booking for a taxi because the disabled person, a blind man, would be accompanied by his assistance dog contrary to S.37A of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
The court fined the company £250 and ordered them to pay £15 victim surcharge and a payment of £250 towards the Council’s costs, the maximum fine for this offence is £1000, in this case, the court took into account the company’s early guilty plea.
The Crown Cars controller, Jawaid Akhtar entered a not guilty plea to the same charge and the hearing of his summons has been adjourned until 22nd August.
Keith Simmons, Service Manager of Registration & Administration for Bedford Borough Council says:
"Licensing Officers were very concerned that any of its licensed drivers could refuse to accept a hiring from a visually-impaired person simply because they were accompanied by a guide dog. This is unacceptable and I hope that this prosecution will send out this message to all licensed drivers.”