A Somerset taxi driver has had his licence suspended for two weeks after he received a caution for an assault over the Christmas period.

The individual, known only as Driver M, holds a Hackney carriage driver’s licence, issued by Sedgemoor District Council, which allows him to operate a private hire vehicle throughout the district.

Driver M came before the council’s licensing and gambling panel after they disclosed they had been given a conditional caution by Avon and Somerset Constabulary for an assault involving “an ex-family member”.

The panel decided that the driver had “failed to maintain” his legal duty to protect the public, and only decided against banning them from a licence altogether on the basis of the driver’s “obvious contrition and regret.”

The outcome of the confidential hearing was published ahead of a meeting of the council’s licensing and general purposes committee on Wednesday (April 10).

The council has a legal duty to protect the public through its licenses, and can only issue licenses to individuals deemed to be “fit and proper” to hold them.

Driver M told the panel the caution related to an incident over Christmas, admitting that they had “assaulted an ex-family member, with whom there had been a long-running dispute.”

The panel heard that Driver M had two previous convictions for battery dating back to 2008.

The driver responded that they had “taken the rap” for another individual in one of these cases; in the other, they had “over-reacted when his car windscreen had been smashed.”

Driver M’s employer – which has also not been identified – described them as “a highly-regarded employee”, who had been with the company for four years.

Official guidance from the Institute of Licensing recommends that any individual with a conviction for a violent offence, or connected with any such offence, should not be granted any licence until ten years after the end of any sentence imposed.

The panel commended Driver M for notifying them at the soonest possibility after the caution had been accepted, and said it was “to their credit” that they had committed no other criminal offences between 2008 and 2019.

However, it agreed there were “grave concerns” about the public’s safety and said the fact that the assault was not related to Driver M’s trade was “largely irrelevant.”

The panel ultimately decided to suspend Driver M’s licence for a period of two weeks.

A council spokesperson said: “Driver M should be under no illusion that to hold a Hackney carriage driver licence is a privilege and not a right, and that we as the licensing authority, take our responsibility seriously.

“Were it not for their obvious contrition and regret, together with the support of their employer, their licence would have been close to a full revocation.”