Private Hire driver ordered to pay over £1000 after being found guilty of plying for hire and trying

Private Hire driver Khawaja Babar, 39, of Reading, who holds a licence from South Oxfordshire – was found guilty at Reading Magistrates’ Court of illegally plying for hire in Reading and giving false information to deceive a council officer. Babar, who had previously been warned not to park up in Reading and wait for work, was seen during the early hours of March 2018, parked in a bus stop outside a fast food shop in Friar Street.

When approached by council officers he said he had just dropped off a customer. This statement turned out to be a lie. 

He appeared at court on Monday January 14 2019, where he was found guilty and was ordered to pay sums totalling £1,100 - £100 for plying for hire, £253 for providing false information and £747 in legal costs. As reported in the Reading Chronicle, Councillor Tony Page, lead councillor for strategic environment, planning and transport, said: 

“Thanks to the hard work of the council’s licensing team, we are sending out the message this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated. "I hope both these prosecutions serve as a deterrent to drivers who are tempted to work illegally and opportunistically in Reading.”