00:00And I'm now joined by Councillor Chris Burt from Highland Council.
00:06So the first question for you, Councillor Burt, is why did you vote to have someone with that background, a
00:13convicted rapist,
00:15why did you vote to give him a renewal of his licence after it was suspended?
00:24I voted in that direction, nothing really to do with the convicted criminal, but to protect his wife.
00:33His wife, Mitty Brown, is a taxi driver, continuing to earn her living and to support herself as a taxi
00:45driver,
00:45working under the operating licence, which is owned by the convicted criminal, her husband,
00:56who was convicted and sentenced for very serious offences.
01:01We did not feel, I did not feel, and colleagues also, did not feel that she should be punished as
01:08well
01:09by having her means of support removed.
01:12Our legal advice was that lots of operator licences operate where the licence holder isn't a taxi driver,
01:24as in this case, who employs other people, in this case his wife, to operate for him.
01:32The licence only has six months to operate at the time, about five months it must be now.
01:39And we felt the most just and fair approach was to allow that operator's licence to stand
01:49for the remaining period of its licence, six months from when we made the decision,
01:57the criminal law being in prison for very much longer than that,
02:02to allow his wife to continue to operate and at the end of that licence she would be able to
02:10renew it in her own name
02:12and therefore hold the operator licence herself.
02:16So that is why we made the decision.
02:19When I make such decisions, I try to make sure that they're legal,
02:24as this was, as explained by our legal advisor,
02:30to decide what outcome would be the most just and fairest,
02:36and this seemed to be the fairest one,
02:39to make sure the wife wasn't published just because her husband had been.
02:49And there was absolutely, obviously, no additional risks to the public.
02:54She's a taxi driver at present, a safe taxi driver.
02:58She's continued to be like other taxi drivers.
03:01There's no reason to think that the safety of the public was in any way infringed.
03:08So that's why I made that decision.
03:11There is a perception, I think, that you may have been concerned about the household income of one family
03:22while putting at risk perhaps many others if that man is released and resumes as a taxi driver
03:30because of your decision.
03:33But the taxi, the operator's licence, runs out in six months.
03:40He's in prison for far longer than that.
03:42So there's actually no risk of him being able to be a taxi driver under it.
03:47It just doesn't arise.
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