A man who provided fake taxi plates has been sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to six counts of fraud relating to taxi licensing.
Waseem Akhtar, 32, was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday 28 August.
Despite never being a taxi driver for Gedling Borough Council, Mr Akhtar sold a vehicle to a third party claiming it was licensed with the council. He tampered with the license plate to change the date and produced a fake paper licence in order to make a profit.
Although the plates may have appeared convincing to passers-by, an eagle-eyed member of staff from the council’s Licensing department spotted the inauthenticity and reported it immediately.
Mr Akhtar is a repeat offender of fraud; he was jailed in 2013 for six months for falsely claiming he held a taxi licence, following previous convictions for the same offence. He was also jailed for a further two months after admitting another fraud charge, for submitting false receipts for journeys he had not completed.
Since the hearing in June, Mr Akhtar has been on bail with the conditions of not sitting in the front of a private hire vehicle or Hackney Carriage.
Leader of the Council, Councillor John Clarke said: “Our staff spotted the fake plate immediately and this sentence will act as a deterrent to anyone thinking about doing something similar.
“When we get into a taxi we trust them to be properly licenced, so we want to assure residents that we will continue to be vigilant against this. If anyone sees anything irregular we ask them to report it to us.”
