Private Hire Driver has his licence revoked for leaving threatening messages on a female passenger&#
A Bolton private hire driver who left menacing voice messages and texts on the phone of a female passenger has had his licence revoked. The man, who has not been named, hounded his victim with threatening messages, some of which included sexual connotations. Bolton Council Licensing Sub-Committee held a meeting in late November to discuss the outcome of the incident which forced the victim to move back into her parent’s home because she was too afraid to be left alone. One of the messages left on the victim's phone was of the man saying "I will get you". The father of the victim had reported the stalking abuse to the police, who interviewed the suspect on November 10. Evidence, in the form of WhatsApp messages, was provided to the Licensing Committee, including a voice message of the suspect saying the victims name and laughing down the phone. The victim said that she never gave her number to the private hire driver at any point, this would suggest that he may of got it from her booking information. She said she was able to discover the identity of the man from his WhatsApp profile picture. The Bolton News confirmed that the meeting was chaired by Cllr Madeline Murray and included Cllr Hilary Fairclough, Cllr David Greenhalgh and Cllr Sue Haworth, who decided that the driver’s licence should be revoked on the basis of public safety. The group said: “members of the public and in particular, the elderly, infirm and children or vulnerable adults entrust their personal safety and wellbeing to private hire drivers whenever they take a journey. “Passengers often travel alone and are vulnerable to inappropriate behaviour. The Sub-Committee’s primary duty is of concern for the safety and wellbeing of the public. “There is therefore reasonable cause to revoke the private hire driver’s licence with immediate effect on the grounds of public safety.”
