Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Dawood v Roads and Maritime Services [2014] NSWCATOD 9 Hearing dates: 29 November 2013, 21 January 2014 Decision date: 06 March 2014 Jurisdiction: Occupational Division Before: S Frost, Senior Member Decision: Taxi driver authority cancellation decision affirmed Catchwords: Passenger transport - taxi driver - whether driver authority should be cancelled - whether applicant fit and proper to drive taxis - whether applicant has sufficient responsibility and aptitude to drive taxis Legislation Cited: Administrative Decisions Review Act 1997 Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 Passenger Transport Act 1990 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Ammar Dawood (Applicant) Roads and Maritime Services (Respondent) Representation: In person (Applicant) Mr A Wozniak (Respondent) File Number(s): 133299 reasons for decision 1The applicant, Ammar Dawood, had his taxi driver authority cancelled in October 2013. The regulator, Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), took this action following a long history of complaints made about Mr Dawood's taxi driving behaviour. 2Mr Dawood applied to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (ADT) for review of RMS's cancellation decision. He was granted a stay of the decision, under s 60 of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997, on 15 October 2013. As a result Mr Dawood has been allowed to continue driving taxis pending determination of his review application. 3I heard his application in the General Division of the ADT on 29 November 2013 and then, following the merger of the ADT into the Civil and Administrative Tribunal of New South Wales (NCAT) on 1 January 2014, I resumed the hearing in the Occupational Division of NCAT on 21 January 2014. At the end of the second hearing day I reserved my decision. I am authorised and required to determine the matter as a member of NCAT: clause 7(2) in Schedule 1 to the Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NCAT Act). Matters, such as this one, concerning the administrative review of decisions made under the Passenger Transport Act 1990 (the PT Act), which were formerly dealt with in the General Division of the ADT are dealt with in the Occupational Division of NCAT: s 52 of the PT Act and clause 4(1) in Schedule 5 to the NCAT Act. The relevant legislation and the issues 4Section 33(3) of the PT Act provides, with respect to taxi-cab driver authorities: (3) The purpose of an authority under this Division is to attest: (a) that the authorised person is considered to be of good repute and in all other respects a fit and proper person to be the driver of a taxi-cab, and (b) that the authorised person is considered to have sufficient responsibility and aptitude to drive a taxi-cab: (i) in accordance with the conditions under which the taxi-cab service concerned is operated, and (ii) in accordance with law and custom. 5The question for the Tribunal is whether Mr Dawood continues to satisfy those requirements. Mr Dawood's history as a taxi driver 6RMS's concerns with respect to Mr Dawood date back to 2006. It was in February of that year that Mr Dawood was first given a taxi driver authority. But it was not long before passengers started to complain about his performance as a taxi driver. 7There are instances in his file [The departmental file, in its entirety, is treated for practical purposes as the "s 58 documents" - the documents lodged with the ADT by RMS under s 58 of what was formerly the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 (but which has now been renamed the Administrative Decisions Review Act 1997 by the NCAT Act)] (for example, at page 173) of complaints relating to his failure to drive by the shortest practical route, his refusal of a fare when "for hire", his failure to use the meter, and his demanding more/other than the prescribed fare. 8Disturbingly, there are four instances, during the period 19 June 2007 to 7 October 2011, of "Rude to customer - Incivility or impropriety" [Page 173 of the s 58 documents]. There are a further three instances of the same kind of complaint during the period 5 March 2012 to 11 February 2013 [Attachment to the Investigation Report filed on 29 November 2013]. 9RMS was so concerned about Mr Dawood's behaviour that it directed him on 22 July 2010 to complete retraining in Module 3 (Customer Service) and Module 4 (Taxi Driving Management) of the Taxicare Plus training program [Page 282 of the s 58 documents at [1.3]]. It seems that Mr Dawood attended those courses very shortly thereafter. However, less than two years later, in May 2012, he was directed to complete the Taxi Driver Remedial Training Course "due to [his] poor complaint history (six (6) additional complaints since [attending] Taxicare Plus training)" [Page 282 of the s 58 documents at [1.5]]. He attended that course, but the complaints kept coming. And Mr Dawood also started getting booked for speeding and other traffic offences. 10During the hearing Mr Dawood was asked about complaint number 64928, dated 7 October 2011. The complaint log [Filed on 9 December 2013] records the complaint in the following way (without corrections): Caller complained when she got in the taxi the taxi driver asked caller how much it was to get to her destination stating the taxi driver asked the caller how to get there. Caller stated when the caller suggested a route the taxi driver then started disagreeing with her stating he gave her other altnerative routes. Caller stated then the taxi driver started arguing with the caller stating he said to her "don't you know where you're going"? Caller stated then the taxi driver started shouting at caller and swearing at her. Caller stated then she asked him to take her to the nearest police station stating he told caller he'd push her out before he'd take her to a police station. Then he said "all you old people are ^&^%$#@ 'bitches'". Caller stated then he spun the car around stating "why didn't you point this out in the first place" Then he said "get out of my taxi you ^%$#&* 'bitch'". Caller stated she gave him $10 stating the taxi driver said "is that all you're ^&^%$# going to give me"? Caller stated then he said to caller "I hope you die tonight". 11The complainant was described as a "spritly 90 years of age" (sic) and the complaint log shows that Mr Dawood was given a 14-shift suspension as a result of this incident. 12In response to questions put to him at the hearing by RMS's representative Mr Wozniak, Mr Dawood admitted having used offensive language to the passenger, and he admitted telling her that he hoped she would die tonight. 13One of the more recent complaints about Mr Dawood's behaviour (number 87808) was made in November 2013, after RMS decided to cancel Mr Dawood's driver authority. The complainant was Martin Bell, a Qantas flight attendant. His complaint, lodged by email, was in the following terms (without corrections): On monday 4th November at approximately 0920, I was waiting for a taxi at the Sydney international airport taxi rank. In front of me in the que waiting for a taxi was a disabled elderly lady in a wheel chair her daughter and granddaughter. The ladies were initially directed to a taxi further down the rank as there were no station wagons available. When taxi 4792 (a station wagon) pulled into no 2 bay the taxi attendant directed the ladies back up to the station wagon. When the driver got out of the taxi he was irate and started a verbal argument about having to take the wheel chair passenger and her family. At this stage the ladies and the wheel chair were on the road waiting to get in a taxi...! The attendant opened the tailgate of the taxi and the taxi driver closed it again.., after further arguing in front of the ladies the driver opened the tail gate and got back in his taxi and sat in the drivers seat offering no assistance to the visibly distressed family. They had to get the wheel chair back on the foot path and with a large gap between the curb and the car the daughter had to literally drag the elderly women into the passenger seat backwards. The whole time the driver sat in the drivers seat not offering a word or assistance of any kind. It was the most disgraceful, embarrassing and selfish behaviour i have seen in a long time. People like this should not be dealing in the customer service industry. 14Mr Bell gave telephone evidence to the Tribunal on 21 January 2014. He confirmed the events as described in his email complaint. 15Although Mr Dawood described the incident differently, and had referred to it in his interview with the RMS investigating officer as a "misunderstanding", I find that the incident occurred substantially as reported by Mr Bell. 16A further incident involving Mr Dawood occurred on 18 January 2014, just three days before the resumed hearing on 21 January. Australian Federal Police (AFP) employee Tim Penman made this report [Report filed on 21 January 2014]: About 0650 hours on Saturday 18 January 2014, police attended the Taxi Holding Bay of T2 Domestic in response to reports of screaming and a possible assault. Also in attendance was Ivan BOJANOVIC of SACL security. Police met with a male and a female now known to be Yasmine JALLOUL and Ahmed TANACH. JALLOUL and TANACH are both employees of SECOM, who administer the holding bay. JALLOUL and TANACH stated that a taxi driver had verbally abused them. JALLOUL stated that the dispute with the driver had begun when the driver's registration did not appear on their system. JALLOUL stated that the driver had repeatedly called her a 'slut'. JALLOUL and TANACH both stated that the driver had made threatening statements to them. JALLOUL also claimed that the driver was screaming loudly and irrationally, which prompted them to alert police. Police then met with the taxi driver, a male now known to be Ammar Noeel Mansour DAWOOD. DAWOOD denied that he had verbally abused JALLOUL and TANACH. DAWOOD claimed that JALLOUL had altered the system so that his vehicle registration did not appear. Police checks for DAWOOD revealed nil outstanding offences. At 0705 hours, members from the Ministry of Transport arrived and conducted their own enquiries. A member of the Ministry, Paul ADAMS, informed DAWOOD that this incident would be on record and may be raised in a tribunal already scheduled for DAWOOD. ADAMS informed police that the Ministry would be conducting further enquiries into DAWOOD's conduct. Information regarding today's incident are to be forwarded to ADAMS to assist in their enquiries. Police gave DAWOOD a Move-On Direction, banning DAWOOD from the airport for 24 hours. 17Mr Dawood, once again, described the incident differently. He claimed that the holding bay attendant had wrongly refused to allow him back in after returning from a short fare. He denied fighting with either of the complainants, and he denied swearing. 18I do not accept that a taxi holding bay attendant would call the AFP for assistance unless there was good reason to do so. I find that the incident occurred substantially as reported by Mr Penman. 19One further incident is worthy of note. This one, identified as complaint number 51020, occurred on 10 June 2010 and is recorded at page 130 of the s 58 documents. The complaint log says (without corrections): When passenger got into car driver asked how much, the passenger said he goes everyday and it cost $12 when they got to desto there was $12.40 on meter, pass said he only has $12 which he gave to driver, the driver asked pass were is his 40cents, the passenger said he didn't have anymore money and got out of cab. The driver started yelling abuse at him said he was going to the police, the passenger kept walking away, driver got out of cab and followed him calling him a names and told him to come back to the cab you fucking black idiot and pay the 40cents, he went back and told driver once again he only had $12 and he went into the club where he works. 20During the hearing Mr Dawood described this passenger as a "big man". He said the passenger physically threatened him. He agreed that the dispute between him and the passenger related to the short-payment of 40 cents. 21This incident says much about Mr Dawood's lack of judgment and lack of anger management skills. For the sake of 40 cents, Mr Dawood was prepared to challenge a passenger - by his own description, a "big man" - who had physically threatened him. Taken together with his treatment of a 90-year-old passenger (complaint 64928, [10]-[12] above), his refusal to help a wheelchair-bound passenger and her fellow travellers (complaint 87808, [13]-[15] above), and his disproportionate reaction to his rejection from a holding bay queue (AFP report, [16]-[18] above), it is clear that he struggles with the responsibility cast upon him as a taxi driver. In my view he is not a fit and proper person to drive taxis. Nor does he have the responsibility and aptitude to do so. 22These shortcomings have been evident for a long time. After a road rage incident in July 2006, only a few months after he started driving taxis, he was referred for professional counselling. The diagnosis in September 2006 [Pages 52-54 of the s 58 documents] was "adjustment disorder with anxious mood/mild depression". The psychiatrist noted that Mr Dawood "did not see any abnormality in his over-reaction to his licences situation" and suggested that he be "counselled regularly for six months to ensure full acceptance of responsibility for his actions" (but there is no evidence that this occurred). The prognosis was described as "should be favourable", but subject to two provisos: * Continued consultation for six months, which "should be a condition of his licences if he is to get it back"; and * "Maybe he needs to attend a refresher driving course or be re-tested to ensure his safety and other's safety as well". 23Things may have been different if those provisos had been heeded. 24I am comfortably satisfied, on the basis of my findings in relation to the few incidents I have discussed, that Mr Dawood is not a fit and proper person to drive taxis, and that he lacks the responsibility and aptitude to do so. I am also comfortably satisfied that the discretion to cancel his taxi driver authority under s 33F of the PT Act should be exercised. For that reason I consider it unnecessary to deal with any of the other incidents recorded in his file. Conclusion 25The correct and preferable decision is that Mr Dawood's taxi driver authority should be cancelled. RMS's decision is affirmed. I hereby certify that this is a true and accurate record of the reasons for decision of the Civil and Administrative Tribunal of New South Wales. Registrar DISCLAIMER - Every effort has been made to comply with suppression orders or statutory provisions prohibiting publication that may apply to this judgment or decision. The onus remains on any person using material in the judgment or decision to ensure that the intended use of that material does not breach any such order or provision. Further enquiries may be directed to the Registry of the Court or Tribunal in which it was generated. Decision last updated: 06 March 2014