South Cambridgeshire District Council’s licensing review panel has granted a private hire driver licence to a former police officer who left the force after racist and misogynistic comments.
The driver is unnamed; press and public were excluded. Minutes and local reporting (Cambridge News, Cambridge Independent, Royston Crow, DM News) say the panel stressed racism and misogyny are “completely unacceptable and reprehensible” and that licensees must treat the public with dignity.
The applicant said the incident was in a social setting among people they saw as friends and family, and that they would not talk that way with passengers they did not know well. The panel treated it as a one-off, noted remorse, and accepted 17 years’ police service including multi-ethnic communities with no other such complaints. On the balance of probabilities it found the applicant fit and proper. The finding is a licensing determination, not approval of the conduct.