A Birmingham taxi driver has been landed with a court bill of over £1,000 for refusing to take a blind passenger and his guide dog in his cab.
Hafeez Ahmed, 45, wouldn’t let them in his private hire vehicle because he claimed the dog was a normal pet and was not an assistance dog, the city’s magistrates were told.
Even when he was eventually convinced it was a guide dog, he still refused to let them in, saying the blind man had been racist and abusive towards him and he felt “upset”.
The blind man was forced to travel into Birmingham city centre on his own and missed his train, incurring £150 in extra charges.
Ahmed, a married dad-of-two of Whitehall Road, Handsworth , pleaded guilty to a charge under the Equality Act 2010 of refusing to accept a booking from a disabled person with an assistance dog.
Magistrates fined him £373 and ordered him to pay courts costs of £634.
