Police welcome jail sentence for 'web of lies' taxi driver

Afra Sihab, of Apollo Road, Wollescote, Stourbridge, was jailed for eight months at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

As police released a picture of the taxi driver, officers said the deception was uncovered following a routine taxi enforcement operation in June this year.

The court heard Sihab told the authorities he had not been driving his hackney carriage when it was caught speeding on two separate occasions.

Fearing he could be disqualified from driving, the court heard he claimed the driver had been a Mohammed Afra Sihab and used a fake driving licence in the same name to accumulate speeding points.

Pc Jason Dooley, from the Camera Enforcement Unit at West Midlands Police, said: "Sihab had applied for a driving licence using a different name and date of birth and then a few years later he applied for another licence which he used for his taxi licence.

"A routine check on his car unravelled a web of lies and deceit and when we visited his address to search for evidence we found that someone had tried to destroy documentation that would prove that he had applied for the bogus licence.

"Fortunately we were able to save the torn documents and we were able to use this to build a case against him.

"Sihab didn't want to take the speeding fines as he was a taxi driver and he may have thought this would affect his licence but what he did was criminal and now he has lost his livelihood and his liberty."

The 53-year-old had been pulled over by an officer on June 20 and checks revealed that Sihab had been suspended from operating a taxi a few months earlier.

Following a search of his vehicle a driving licence relating to another man was found, with Sihab claiming he was holding it for a friend.

And when the officer investigated further it was revealed that Sihab had applied for a driving licence using a different name and date of birth.

In 2009 and 2012 Sihab's taxi had been caught speeding in Stourbridge and Halesowen and he had completed his prosecution form using the fake licence - claiming that a different man at his home address had been driving the car.

He was jailed and disqualified from driving for 12 months having previously admitted two counts of perverting the course of justice.

The father-of-four was also ordered to pay £400 costs.

Miss Alisha Harris, defending Sihab, told the court case her client had been trying to turn his life around.

She said: "Having received points on his licence he thought he would lose his licence if he got any more. He has been told this could be a way of avoiding the points.

"He has expressed a great deal of remorse. He has a mortgage on his property of £401 and has since secured alternative work.

"He is running the Kings fast food shop in Stourbridge and says business is doing well.

"He is frankly mortified as what he has done and his family are ashamed."

Giving his sentence to Sihab last Wednesday, Judge Robin Onions, said: "These are offences of the greatest seriousness."