A heroin addict minicab driver has lost his fight to get his licence back.

Bradford Council suspended Mohammed Shabir's licence after it was discovered he used heroin daily.

His nine-year addiction came to light when he was prosecuted for a £21,000 housing benefit fraud.

Council officers suspending the married father-of-three's private hire driver's licence on March 10. Two weeks later magistrates gave him a two-year drug testing and treatment order for the six-year benefit fiddle.

Shabir, of Westfield Road, Heaton, Bradford, had an appeal against the suspension turned down by Bingley magistrates in May and yesterday Judge Robert Bartfield and two more magistrates threw out his second appeal.

Judge Bartfield noted that during his evidence the 35-year-old had conceded he would not let a drug addict cabbie drive his own children.

"That strikes me as an entirely realistic view,'' said Judge Bartfield.

"Why then should the appellant be trusted? There is a public safety issue here. No-one can be satisfied that a heroin user who uses it on such a frequent basis can be free of its ill-effects the next day - that's if he's telling the truth about the time of his consumption.'' Judge Bartfield said there would be a "public outcry" if anything happened and the local authority had licensed somebody they knew was a heroin addict.

He said: "Such a course, in our view, is unthinkable and the Council was entirely right and cannot in anyway be criticised for the decision it made in March.

"Anything else would have been completely irresponsible. This appeal on this ground is completely without merit and is dismissed."

Bradford Crown Court heard Shabir got his licence in 1991 despite convictions for offences including arson and burglary. But in 1997, after unsuccessfully trying the building trade, his life was said to have taken "a turn for the worse". Barrister Ken Green, for Shabir, said it was accepted that after 1997 his client became dependent on heroin and the court heard that before his sentence in March he had been using cannabis and the heroin-substitute methadone.

When Shabir was granted a new private hire driver's licence in June, 2004, he failed to disclose a caution for assaulting his wife which he had received only four months before.

Bradford Council barrister Emma Downing said the decision to suspend Shabir's licence in March had been taken on the grounds of his use of illegal drugs, the benefits offences and his failure to disclose the caution.

Hackney carriage manager Paul Mills confirmed there had never been any complaints from passengers about Shabir's driving and he had no motoring offences on record.

Shabir said he had never driven while under the influence of heroin and only smoked the drug when he got home after finishing his 7am-to-4pm shift.

Shabir said the benefit offences were committed because he was spending his money on drugs and needed cash to pay his mortgage.

He admitted that, at the time the pre-sentence report was written, he was still using about £20-worth of heroin each day.

"Is it your evidence that in March, despite the fact you were using heroin and cannabis each day, you were a fit and proper person to drive round members of the public?" asked Miss Downing. "Yes," replied Shabir.

But when pressed by Judge Bartfield on whether he would allow a heroin addict to drive his own children in a taxi, Shabir answered: "I'd probably say no."

In the ruling, Judge Bartfield said the failure to disclose the caution and the benefits offences themselves may not have provided a reasonable cause to suspend Shabir's licence and it was the drugs matter on which the appeal turned.

Shabir, who said losing his licence would have devastating effects on his family, must pay £350 costs.

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