BANKRUPT BANKER
Police News - Taxi Firm With Crime Links Shut Down: "taxi firm being run for the financial benefit of a convicted criminal who once threatened to have police officers shot and boasted of being “the heavy from Dumbarton” has become the first in Scotland to be denied a licence under new legislation.
Castle Cabs was refused a licence to run a private hire business under recent changes to the law designed to weed out criminal elements from the trade by allowing the police to object if they have evidence a firm is a front for other parties.
Strathclyde Police had argued that owner James King was running the Dumbarton-based firm for his son, Stephen, 36, who has spent convictions for housebreaking, possession of drugs and carrying a knife – crimes that would have prevented him successfully applying for a licence in his own name.
Officers took the unusual step of reading out his spent offences to thwart the application at a hearing of West Dunbartonshire Council. The decision to uphold the force’s objections is the first time recent legal changes have been used to close a taxi or private hire firm.
It follows the force’s failed attempt to prevent another cab firm from trading last month."
