A man jailed for 18 months for his part in a "major" fraud ring involving pirate set-top cable TV boxes has been refused permission to become an Uber driver. Bristol city councillors rejected his application for a private hire driver licence because it is too soon since his conviction.
Public safety and protection sub-committee members heard that the man, who works at a restaurant in Thornbury, was convicted in 2016 and completed his sentence in February 2018, but the authority’s policy is that seven years must have elapsed after it ended. Councillors were not satisfied that he was a fit and proper person to hold a licence and refused to make an exception in his case.
Recently published minutes of the private hearing at City Hall in June said the offence dated back to 2008 and “involved the arrangement of fraudulent set-top cable boxes”. They said: “This was a major case for which the applicant was under the umbrella.”
