Click here to email for more information

Council chiefs let rape suspect cabbie run school taxi contract for 18 months AFTER being warned by police

by News admin on June 30, 2010 · 1 comment

in Passenger Transport,Violations

Share

Source: Scottish Daily Record

Jun 30 2010 By Chris Musson

EDUCATION chiefs allowed a career criminal who’d been accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in his cab to run a primary schools taxi contract.

East Dunbartonshire Council only cancelled the lucrative deal 18 months after police alerted them.

As revealed by the Record on Monday, Stephen Calderwood, the former boss of Great Western Taxis, has faced a string of allegations involving children.

We caught him illegally driving a taxi despite being stripped of his cabbie’s badge because cops believed he was a danger to the public.

Police flagged up Calderwood’s 31 past convictions and the alleged rape – which was never proven – in January 2008.

He was stripped of his driver’s badge by East Dunbartonshire Council straight away. Yet they allowed Bearsden’s Great Western Taxis to continue with the contract for 10 primary schools for another year.

It took a personal visit by police chiefs to the council HQ last year for the local authority to sever ties.

The Record understands senior cops handed a crime dossier on Calderwood, 44, to officials.

A police source said: “We raised the issues of his past convictions several times when he applied for his taxi licences. The council refused to renew his licence in January 2008 after a police objection based partly on the 2007 rape allegation.

“At that point we thought they would drop the schools contract immediately. But they didn’t.

“In the end we had to go in with an enhanced disclosure and hand it to them. Following our visit they switched the contract.”

Yesterday, East Dunbartonshire Council admitted there was a year between stripping Calderwood’s badge and ending the contract.

But they declined to say why.

Calderwood’s Great Western Taxis Ltd were dissolved last November.

Great Western Taxis (Bearsden) Ltd now run the business known as Great Western Taxis in East Dunbartonshire – with the same phone number – and Clyde Radio Cars. Lawyers deny a link to Calderwood.

Possibly Related Posts:

Read More at Technorati on: taxi licensing

Drug dealers and sex offenders , criminals given taxi driver licences
.............................Criminals with convictions for offences including indecent assault and ...

On the subject of effective enforcement by Newcastle City Council.
On the subject of effective enforcement by Newcastle City Council. Firstly,can I just thank the mem...

Central Taxi Safety Concern:
I was indeed concerned today when the owner of Central taxis in North shields, was removed from the ...

What Taxi Drivers Take Home at Night: NVQ !??!!
YouTube Blurb on this Vid Paralyzed The rise and rise of the Lumpenproletariat. Uncouth. Rancoro...

North Tyneside Private Hire Zoning Policy!!?
Research and consultation with the other Authorities had revealed no other cases of zoning at the pr...

Tagged as: taxi licensing

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

CoramPopulo June 30, 2010 at 10:08 pm: This is the same local authority who about a year ago threatened to take the badge off of an ordinary taxi driver for not displaying No Smoking signs in his taxi !!

Yet here we have this geezer running about in his taxi with impunity!

But lets not just blame East Dunbartonshire Council, what have the police being doing about it ?!

Especially when they have the FULL dossier on this man and yet it takes the Daily Record to spot that he is running about in an taxi in the Bearsden and Milngavie area !!
Surely this mans vehicle must have been recognised by police on sight and surely he too would have been visually recognised by the police whilst sitting at the wheel and driving the taxi-plated vehicle.

What message does this send out to the people of East Dunbartonshire and the taxi services that operate there ?
Reply to this comment