Private Hire licence granted to man who ran into a police station threatening to blow it up

A man who threatened to blow up a police station has been granted a private hire licence by Glasgow’s licensing committee despite concerns raised by Police Scotland’s chief constable Iain Livingstone. The incident, which took place in August of 2007, saw Hamza Bin Iqbal, 33, burst into Motherwell Police Office demanding that a friend of his be released from custody. When he realised his request was not going to be met, he shouted “my pal is in here. You’ve got five minutes to get him out or ill f***ing bomb the place.” Iqbal was arrested on the spot and was in danger of facing terrorism charges, but on-duty police officers were able to assess the situation and come to the conclusion that the bomb threat wasn’t real. According to a report in the Evening Times, Iqbal was charged with a breach of the peace and was ordered to carry out 120-hours of unpaid work.  This week Iqbal stood before Glasgow’s licensing committee in a bid to obtain a private hire licence to work in the city.

Iqbal denied ever threatening to bomb the police station and said that the CCTV wasn’t working at the time of the incident so was unable to prove his innocence. He claimed to not be a violent person. Although the breach of peace conviction will remain on his record for a further five years, he was granted a licence to work as a private hire driver for three years.