A PRIVATE hire driver has been suspended after plying for trade, as councillors decided his story about picking up friends after a night out “doesn’t seem to add up”.

Private hire drivers aren’t allowed to pick up passengers off the street, and after being videoed and reported by a hackney taxi driver who had been approached by the same passengers on Jamaica Street near McDonald’s, Orwa Sulaiman Ibrahim was handed a six-week ban.

Mr Ibrahim claimed he wasn’t working and had been picking up friends after a night out, but councillors on the city’s licensing committee weren’t convinced.

The hackney driver reported that he had been flagged down by a couple who “came up to me asking a price to Paisley” in October last year. “They said ‘this private hire in front of you wants £35 cash, can you beat this quote?’

“I said 'he’s not allowed to pick you up without booking'. They left and went to him, sat in his private hire car and drove off.”

During an interview with enforcement officers in November last year, Mr Ibrahim said: “I don’t remember this particular incident but I can tell you that I usually do not work nights on weekends.”

This was due to “a few bad experiences in the past with drunk customers”, he added. “I like to go out with my friends on the weekend and because I only have one vehicle, I always drive my private hire car.

“I can take my friends home as it is difficult for them to get a taxi home. I can only assume that’s what happened on this occasion and the taxi driver got the wrong idea.”

Councillor Alex Wilson, who chairs the licensing committee, quizzed the driver on his memory of the night. Mr Ibrahim said: “It’s just not that day specifically because I always pick them [his friends] up.”

Councillor Wilson then said the driver hadn’t mentioned he had been clubbing, then to McDonald’s and picked up his friend. “That’s what should have been in this statement if it is true,” he added.

Mr Ibrahim’s representative said if the committee decided his client was guilty then it was his first offence and he had never previously breached his licence conditions.

Councillor Thomas Kerr said: “It seems a tad convenient that when you were asked about this from our enforcement team, it was ‘I don’t remember’ and the day you come before this committee, you now remember it was a friend and your friend is able to provide written evidence saying ‘yes it was me’.

“This happened last year so what happened in between then for you to remember it was your friend? It doesn’t seem to add up whatsoever for me.”

Councillor Wilson added: “There are a lot of things that just don’t seem to add up in this. I can’t understand why a hackney driver would possibly say they approached him and then got into your car.”