Unlicenced min cab driver said he was forced to work when his parents and brother died

A father who worked as an unlicenced mini cab driver to support his family through the pandemic has been hit with a £1,190 fine.

Olanrewaju Badmus, 55, approached a plain-clothes police officer at Heathrow Airport on 12 January last year and offered to take him to Harrow for £40.

As the two men walked toward the car, a second officer approached and Badmus had barely opened the boot before the officers revered they were from Transport for London (TFL).

Badmus, of Rainham, Essex, was interviewed at the scene and admitted he had no private vehicle license and no insurance to carry passengers.

Deputy District Judge Matthew Bone asked Badmus why he had committed the offence.

Badmus told Westminster Magistrates’ Court: ‘I was working at a cleaning company until the pandemic.

‘My brother in America fall sick and dead on 7 June [2020] in Atlanta.

‘In December my father passed away.

‘Then my mum passed away and then all my siblings are looking for support.

‘We can’t go back to work because of the pandemic.

‘It was a really tough time.

‘I was tempted, tempted.’

Badmus plead guilty to the five charges against him, all of which relate to the incident on 12 January 2020 and included operating a vehicle as a private hire vehicle without the appropriate license, driving without the proper insurance and touting for hire.

The father-of-two has a number of previous convictions, including four taxi touting offences between 2010 and 2012 and three offences of driving whilst disqualified during the same period.

Handing down his sentence, Judge Bone said: ‘Dealing with you for these offences, I’m going to focus on the no insurance offence.

‘Although your previous convictions are some time ago I cannot ignore the fact that you have committed serious driving offences in the past, but what I do take into account is that they were nine years ago.

‘The prosecution very fairly effectively say “we were doing an undercover operation to see if we could catch people who are touting as taxi drivers and were not licensed” and they caught you.

‘You were not a target, you were not someone who had come to their attention since 2012.

‘You were stopped and made admissions at the scene.

‘I note your mitigation and I cannot pretend to understand how difficult the past 12-13 months or so has been for your family but equally I have to balance that.

‘TFL do what they do, register taxi drivers, for good reason.

‘Taxi drivers who are registered are safe to carry passengers. Taxi drivers who are not registered are unsafe to carry passengers and, for some cash, some £40, you were prepared to risk somebody else by carrying them as a non-licensed taxi driver.

‘So I balance your mitigation with the reason why TFL did this.

‘I am convinced that if I were to disqualify you from driving today that, not only would that have some inconvenience to your daughter [whom you drive to school], but it would impact on your ability to continue to work.

‘The court has to consider the danger the driver has posed, which as I have indicated is high when you’re not licensed, but what I should not do is impose disqualification if it is likely to prevent you from being rehabilitated.

‘If I disqualify you today you will not be able to work.

‘The temptation would be for you to do it again and I think if I disqualify you from driving, preventing you from working, it would make you do it again and that would be contrary to your rehabilitation.

‘However you are going to have to drive very carefully and I have to say I am going to impose a significant financial penalty on you.’

Badmus was fined £700 for driving without the correct insurance and £200 for touting for hire.

He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £90 and contribute £200 toward court costs, making a total of £1,190.

Badmus, who earns about £1,350 a month as a cleaner, received no penalty for his other offences, but Judge Bone imposed eight penalty points on his drivers license.

Judge Bone said: ‘That does mean you’re going to have to drive very carefully for the next 3-4 years.

‘I want to make it clear to you that I am imposing penalty points so that you are careful never to do this for a third time because if you do you will be disqualified.’