Taxi driver taking legal action against Wakefield Council over licence plate ‘error’ which cost him £1,000

Cabbie Ishfaq Hussain said the mistake has left him up to £1000 out of pocket after he was issued with an out of date licence plate.

Mr Hussain made a successful application to the local authority to have his Hackney carriage licence renewed earlier this year.

The father-of-five said a new licence plate was posted to his home which had an expiry date of February 19, 2023.

Mr Hussain, 36, a driver based in Pontefract since 2017, said the plate was already four days out of date by the time he received it.

He said: “When I showed it to my operator they spotted the mistake and told me I couldn’t work until it got sorted.

“By then it was a Friday afternoon and I tried to ring the licensing office but couldn’t get through. It meant I couldn’t work over the weekend

“It was the last weekend of the month when a lot of people go out after getting paid. It’s a big weekend for lots of taxi drivers. I would have expected to have made between £800 and £1,000.”

Mr Hussain has now returned to work after being reissued with a new plate but said he has made a formal complaint against the council and is seeking legal action to recover lost income.

Mr Hussain, from Bingley, added: “I didn’t notice the mistake at first because you don’t expect mistakes like that to be made.

“The council are constantly saying to drivers that they expect us to be professional at all times. It’s only fair that we should be able to expect them to be professional too.

“It was a lot of money for me to lose and I will struggle to pay my mortgage this month.”

Mr Hussain later received an e-mail from the council’s licensing office stating: “As you have pointed out, the licence was issued with incorrect dates. This was a genuine mistake as a result of human error.

“Although we endeavour to minimise mistakes, the licensing office processes thousands of licences each year and, from time to time, small mistakes are inevitable.”

Yasar Ahmed, president of Wakefield Drivers Association, said: “The fact that Wakefield Council can dismiss their life-changing incompetence as “human error” simply highlights the dismissive nature and pure incompetence that taxi drivers have to face.

“No urgency or action was taken when notified. If we were to make a “human error” mistake, it would be a five-year ban for dishonesty.

“This is simply appalling and disingenuous to our profession.

“West Yorkshire Major Tracy Brabin called us the ‘fourth emergency service’.

“Wakefield Council treats us with discontent. We have had enough.”

Glynn Humphries, the council’s corporate director for communities, environment and climate change, said: “We are aware of the issue raised by the complainant and we are responding in line with our procedures.”