Taxi Cop uncovers multiple licensing breaches at Glastonbury Festival during week of checks
- Perry Richardson
- Jul 2
- 2 min read
A targeted enforcement operation at Glastonbury Festival has uncovered multiple licensing breaches involving taxi and private hire drivers.
PC Patrick Quinton, known as the ‘Taxi Cop’ for Avon and Somerset Police, carried out 90 checks on vehicles and drivers attending the event. The checks involved drivers licensed with 22 different local authorities.
As a result of the operation, 15 Non-Compliance Notices were issued, with most relating to missing or incorrectly displayed plates and badges. Two arrests were made — one for drug driving by a hackney carriage driver and the other for driving a private hire vehicle without a licence.
One former hackney carriage driver was found to still be operating his vehicle despite no longer holding the correct licence. He is now due to appear in court.
Police also issued an immediate suspension to one driver due to a dangerous tyre. A further case is under investigation where a driver is suspected of being unlicensed.
PC Quinton said one of his follow-up tasks includes notifying 12 licensing authorities of the issues found among their respective licence holders.
Despite the breaches, PC Quinton said the majority of drivers worked professionally to ensure festival-goers were transported safely. He also praised the event staff for helping to manage the flow of passengers effectively.
PC Patrick Quinton, ‘Taxi Cop’ for Avon and Somerset Police, said: “It was good to meet a whole new group of local drivers, and a big thumbs up both to the majority of all drivers who worked hard to get people to where they needed to go safely and professionally and to the Event Staff who did a great job in keeping things moving and helping the Festival Goers.”
