Drugs offence costs Blackpool cabbie their licence

But another applicant has been granted a licence despite having committed a sex offence in the past.

A further applicant was refused a licence having been banned from driving four years ago – applicants must wait seven years before they can be licensed again.

But no action is being taken against two other drivers pending police investigations into alleged involvement in road traffic accidents.

The transgressions are among the latest to go before Blackpool Council’s public protection sub-committee for consideration.

Hearings are held in private with drivers’ personal details exempt from publication.

Minutes relating to the sub-committee’s meeting on February 23 say a driver notified the licensing service after they had been given an official police caution for the possession of a controlled Class B drug.

Councillors were asked to consider whether the individual was a “fit and proper person” to be licensed.

However it was “decided on reflection of the events presented before them there were no exceptional circumstances” and so the licence was revoked.

A licence was approved for another applicant despite them having a previous conviction for a sex offence.

The incident happened when the person was aged 16, and they had had a clean record ever since leading the sub-committee to agree it was reasonable to depart from policy due to the ” circumstances around the conviction and the considerable time that had elapsed since, including the decades of clean record.”