{"id":5372,"date":"2011-07-08T15:04:12","date_gmt":"2011-07-08T15:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2011\/07\/08\/victory-in-guide-dog-taxi-case\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T13:06:52","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T13:06:52","slug":"victory-in-guide-dog-taxi-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/08\/victory-in-guide-dog-taxi-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Victory in Guide dog Taxi case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Driver Wali Khan prosecuted over refusal to take guide dog<\/h3>\n
\"\"CHARITY marathon hero ‘Blind Dave’ Heeley has won a landmark legal victory after his guide dog Wicksie was barred from a taxi.<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The offence – brought to court in the West Midlands with the help of Sandwell Council – happened within a week of the Equalities Act coming into force last year, and is thought to be the first of its kind prosecuted under the new legislation.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The council’s taxi licensing department took taxi driver 28-year-old Wali Khan to court <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Speaking after the case, 53-year-old Dave, of West Bromwich, said: “I think it was important to take this case to court. It is a victory for all other blind, deaf and physically disabled people.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Warley magistrates heard that Dave had ordered a taxi to collect him from Great Bridge Library, Tipton, on 7 October 2010.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Khan broke the Equalities Act because he wouldn’t let Dave’s guide dog Wicksie on board.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The court heard the driver had said “No dogs mate, no dogs in the car”, even though Dave and a library worker told him Wicksie was a trained guide dog. Wicksie was also wearing a harness and fluorescent jacket.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Khan, of Lewisham Road, Smethwick, pleaded guilty to refusing to carry a guide dog in a taxi under the Equalities Act, which came into force on 1 October 2010. He was ordered to pay \u00a350 in compensation, a \u00a3100 fine and \u00a3500 in court costs.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

In interview, Khan said he was allergic to dogs and was scared of them after being attacked by a dog when he was 12.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He said he had been a private hire driver for about two years and accepted he did not have a medical exemption certificate.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Khan said he had offered to take Dave once he was told by the taxi firm base that Dave was telling the truth and that Wicksie was a guide dog.<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Driver Wali Khan prosecuted over refusal to take guide dog CHARITY marathon hero ‘Blind Dave’ Heeley has won a landmark legal victory after his guide dog Wicksie was barred from a taxi. The offence – brought to court in the West Midlands with the help of Sandwell Council – happened within a week of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}