Application for Middlesborough private hire licence refused due to undeclared convictions and dishonesty concerns
- Perry Richardson
- 27 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Middlesbrough Council’s Licensing Committee has refused a private hire vehicle driver licence application, referenced 15/25, after uncovering a past conviction involving counterfeit goods and determining that the applicant failed to meet the required standards of honesty and disclosure.
The decision followed a hearing held on 28 April 2025 where the applicant, who attended in person, was questioned about a 2017 conviction relating to the sale of counterfeit cigarettes and unsafe goods. The offences dated back to August 2016, and included three counts of possessing goods with a false trademark for sale and one offence under product safety legislation. The applicant was sentenced to a 12-month community order, 120 hours of unpaid work, and was ordered to pay legal costs and victim surcharge. The counterfeit cigarettes were seized and destroyed.
According to Middlesbrough Council’s Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Policy, convictions involving dishonesty are taken seriously. For an isolated offence involving dishonesty, a licence will generally not be considered until at least seven years have passed since the end of the sentence. In this case, that period will end in December 2025.
Further concerns were raised during the application process after it was found that the applicant had failed to declare the conviction. He later claimed he did not fully understand the question on the application form and was assisted by a prospective employer in completing it. The Licensing Officer noted that when asked to elaborate on this, the applicant provided no explanation.
During the hearing, the applicant stated he did not know it was a criminal offence to sell counterfeit goods at the time and that he now understood the seriousness of the issue. He told the Committee that he was seeking the licence to improve his quality of life.
The Committee considered all representations and determined that the offences involved dishonesty, and that the applicant’s failure to disclose them on the form undermined his credibility. There were no exceptional reasons to justify departing from the Council’s Policy on convictions.
The application was therefore refused. The applicant has 21 days to appeal the decision at Teesside Magistrates’ Court.
