Middlesbrough's Licensing Committee refused a private hire driver's licence on Monday 7 September 2026. The applicant is not named. The committee was not satisfied that he was a fit and proper person to hold one.
The earlier licence
He was first licensed on or around 11 July 2024. On 18 July 2024 the council revoked that licence with immediate effect, after a common law police disclosure from Cleveland Police. The disclosure recorded his arrest on suspicion of driving with excess alcohol and of possessing cocaine, a class A drug.
On 6 September 2024 he was convicted of driving with excess alcohol. The court fined him £400, ordered £85 costs and a £160 victim surcharge, and disqualified him for 17 months. A drink-drive course could shorten the ban. A later DVLA check showed a disqualification of one year, one month and four days from 6 September 2024. The licence was restored in October 2025.
He applied again on 23 March 2026 and declared the conviction. Licensing Committee minutes
Two accounts of the night
At an interview on 28 July 2026 he described an assault by about five people while he was out with friends. He took a taxi to a friend's house, then drove back to a pub at 4am for a phone he had left there. His last drink had been at about 10pm. He felt fit to drive, and accepted that this was no excuse. He had completed a drink-drive rehabilitation course. A reference from his employer described him as reliable, responsible and professional.
He told licensing officers that the cocaine belonged to a friend and was not for him, and that he had not been convicted over it. He offered to take a drugs test.
A 2024 interview, after the revocation, named a different pub and a departure between 11.30pm and midnight. In that account he had used cocaine for about 11 years, about three times a year and only on holiday, and had intended to take the cocaine found that night, though not necessarily then. When officers raised the difference, he stood by the 2024 account and could not remember the precise details.
At the hearing he called the offence a one-off. Friends of his would drink and drive, and he knew that was wrong. He had not reported the assault, which he described as racist. On his account, one of the group was later arrested over the Middlesbrough riots, and the attack had distorted his judgement.
Why the policy was applied
The council's policy requires at least seven years free of conviction, after any sentence or driving ban, before an application from someone convicted of drink-driving will be considered. The committee put the end of that period at 2032 at the earliest. Policy on convictions
There was no good reason, in its view, to make an exception. The account of the cocaine had shifted: he could not recall when he had last used it, then placed that use on the night of the incident. It was particularly concerned that he believed he was fit to drive four hours after his last drink.
He may appeal to Teesside Magistrates' Court, Victoria Square, Middlesbrough, within 21 days of the decision notice.