Rule-breaking taxi and private hire drivers have been ordered to pay out thousands of pounds over the past month.
Liverpool City Council is continuing its tough stance on drivers who break the law - with more than £3,000 in fines paid out in the last month alone.
The council has taken action against six drivers for a number of offences including driving without insurance and driving without a licence.
Five of the drivers taken to court were from Liverpool, while one was registered in St Helens .
The council and its partners - including Merseyside Police - are taking part in an ongoing campaign to make sure that drivers in the city abide by the rules. And the message is - there can be no excuses.
Chair of Liverpool City Council’s Licensing Committee, Cllr Christine Banks, said: “Our priority is the safety of people in our city, which is why we take any incident of taxi drivers breaking the rules extremely seriously.”
Collectively, the offending drivers were ordered to pay £2,360 in fines, £840 in costs and £184 in victim surcharges.
Cllr Banks added: “The vast majority of taxi and private hire drivers in our city do a great job and abide by the rules. Our officers are working hard to target those who don’t. If you break the law, you will get caught.”
Yesterday we reported how one private hire driver who illegally picked up two undercover officers during a joint police and council operation was ordered to pay more than £500 by a court.
Driver Jefferey Anthony Fleming of Ash Road, Litherland , was caught as part of Operation Inman, which detects private hire cars who pick up passengers without a prior booking.
By law, private hire vehicles must only carry passengers who have booked in advance.
Last year, a Liverpool ECHO investigation found that scores of private hire drivers were illegally plying for hire in the city centre.
