Torbay cabbie banned for speeding

Another given a formal warning

Two Torbay taxi drivers have been sanctioned following a council hearing into how ‘fit and proper’ they are to carry on taking passengers in the bay.

One has been suspended for six months with immediate effect and told to take an advanced driving course for a speeding offence which he failed to report, while the other has been given a formal warning for two speeding offences and failing to stop at traffic lights. She will also have to take an advanced driving course.

Both cases were heard by Torbay Council’s regulatory sub-committee. Neither driver’s identity was made public. 

The suspended driver had accumulated nine points on his driving licence, the meeting heard, after ‘repeated offences’. He had not informed the licensing authority within the 48 hours required.

The driver, who lives with dyslexia, had not been aware of the regulation and, he said, the incidents had happened during personal journeys and not when he had passengers in his car.

Members of the sub-committee decided his ‘skill as a professional driver had fallen below the standard reasonably expected of a driver licensed by Torbay Council’.

The minutes of the meeting go on to say: “Members carefully considered whether they would allow their son or daughter, spouse or partner, mother or father, grandson or granddaughter, or any other person for whom they care, or any vulnerable person known to them, to travel alone in a vehicle driven by the respondent.

“The answer to this question, on the balance of probabilities, was a unanimous ‘no’.”

The meeting heard that the other driver had committed a traffic lights offence in 2024, with two speeding offences in 2025, taking her to nine points on her driving licence. She had also failed to report them.

However, on the balance of probabilities question, they answered ‘yes’.

Members decided that her submissions were honest, and she recognised the seriousness of being a professional driver with nine points on her licence.

The minutes go on: “The respondent apologised to the committee for the need for the hearing, understood the reasons why and the seriousness of being brought before the committee.

“Members accepted the explanations for the circumstances, though they agreed with the respondent that there were no mitigating circumstances which fully excused these offences.”

The formal warning will stay in place for three years.

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