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Stockton taxi driver loses licence after filming arrest of vulnerable woman, committee minutes show
A Stockton-on-Tees licensing committee revoked a combined hackney carriage and private hire driver’s licence after finding his conduct during a police arrest, alongside earlier incidents cited by an officer, raised doubts about his fitness to remain licensed.
The General Licensing Committee made the decision at its meeting on 9 June 2026, after considering whether driver 140597 remained a fit and proper person to hold a licence. The case followed a report that he had filmed officers arresting an intoxicated woman during an investigation into an alleged knife-point robbery.
Cleveland Police Sergeant Smith told the committee that officers were trying to detain the woman, who was distressed and whose trousers had fallen down as she struggled. The driver’s licensed vehicle arrived and parked close behind the police vehicles. Stockton Council CCTV, viewed by the committee, showed him filming the incident on his phone.
The minutes record that the driver later approached a police vehicle, appeared to obstruct it from leaving and continued filming during an exchange with the officer. Sergeant Smith said the driver used inappropriate language and interfered with law and order. He also said recording in a public place was permissible, but questioned the appropriateness of filming a vulnerable woman in that situation.
The driver told the committee that he began recording because he was concerned by what he saw and believed the woman was being manhandled. He said the footage had not been shared, apologised for his actions and described filming as an error of judgement. The committee viewed a 21-second clip he provided; he said he had deleted the rest of the recording and could not recover it.
The driver’s representative argued that the matter was minor, that his client had not committed a criminal offence and that he had cooperated by providing written answers. He also presented five character references and asked the committee to let the driver keep his licence, potentially with a condition governing his conduct.
The driver had been licensed by the council since August 2022, and the licensing manager told members there were no previous complaints on the licensing file.
The committee also considered a police community support officer’s statement describing earlier encounters with the driver. These included alleged aggressive behaviour during parking disputes, filming or involving himself in police activity, and a Section 59 warning for antisocial driving. The driver disputed aspects of the account and said he did not consider himself aggressive or a nuisance.
The committee refused the driver’s request to defer the hearing until the outcome of his complaint against a police officer. Members said their task was to assess the driver’s conduct and fitness to hold a licence, rather than determine the officer’s conduct. The minutes state that the council’s complaints process had separately found no case to answer in complaints made against licensing staff.
In its decision, the committee said it would not be satisfied allowing people it cared about to enter a vehicle alone with the driver, given concerns raised by his conduct. It concluded that the CCTV footage, together with what it described as a pattern of concerning behaviour, provided reasonable cause to revoke his licence.
