Council claims it does vet all cabbies

Council bosses have defended their vetting process after a foreign taxi driver was jailed for sexually assaulting passengers.

Mohsen Nilchian, of Marina, St Leonards, was sent to prison earlier this month for a pair of early morning attacks while working as a cabbie in Hastings between 2007 and 2009.

The 50-year-old, who worked for a private car hire firm, had his licence taken away when the allegations first surfaced, but that did not stop locals criticising the council after reading the Observer's front page last week.

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One concerned resident, who did not want to be named, questioned whether Hastings Borough Council was able to carry out proper checks on foreign drivers' criminal background in the same way it invokes a CRB check with UK drivers.

And a local cabbie '“ who also did not want to be named '“ said it was unfair that British-born cabbies were subject to more stringent checks.

However, a spokesman for the council confirmed the authority did all it could to check up on prospective taxi drivers.

Councillor Phil Scott, head of environment at the local authority, said: "All taxi drivers working in Hastings and St Leonards go through a thorough vetting system.

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"They must undertake a local knowledge and numeracy test and pass a Driving Standards Agency taxi test.

"They are then subject to an enhanced CRB check and as part of that we have arrangements with foreign governments to carry out additional checks.

"This system has proved successful and cases of this type are very rare."

"In this case the driver in question (Nilchian) had been a resident in the UK for almost ten years and licensed with us since 2004."