COMMENT: Jersey Lifts – are the drivers taking the ‘tax’ out of taxi?

The first was the move by the spineless, nameless and faceless PC brigade – and I don’t mean police constable, either – at the new Kremlin in Route du Fort swimming furiously to put as much clear water as possible between themselves and the eminently sensible view expressed by one of their minions about the unlawful use of private cars for hire or reward, videoed by someone.

The unidentified officer was filmed saying, in effect, that action by the police to stop the ‘Jersey Lifts’ unlawful taxi system needed a couple of serious accidents first – something which struck an immediate chord with this particular columnist because I said something almost identical months ago.

As I said then, those using their cars for this activity may well feel confident that those for whom they provide ‘lifts’ will keep their mouths shut if approached by the police, but that will evaporate when push comes to shove and someone is lying dead or critically injured after an accident and unable to make a claim against an uninsured driver.

Of course, as the statement from the hierarchy at Police Headquarters rightly said, no one wants to see anyone killed or injured in any circumstances – they’re getting really adept at stating the obvious these days, aren’t they? – but I doubt that the junior officer who sparked all this meant his comment to be taken as literally as that.

The second aspect of this ongoing story to catch my eye was the assertion from four of the drivers working unlawfully that even if they are caught, they intend to carry on the practice regardless – as bad an example of utter contempt for the rule of law as I’ve seen in years, always disregarding of course the wanton disregard for legislation displayed on a daily basis by an irresponsible minority of dog owners.

I was particularly interested in the account by the anonymous 33-year-old father-of-three who works in the building trade (but gets no money if it rains), pulls down up to 350 quid a week in income support paid for by taxpayers, and who admits to making a hundred quid a night at weekends driving his illegal taxi, without which he is threatening to go back to Portugal, from whence he came nine years ago. With considerable difficulty I will refrain from expressing a view on the last comment other than to say that his attitude does not reflect that of the many thousands of Portuguese originnaires who work extremely hard, pay their fair whack of dues and, in respect of half a dozen of them at least, I am privileged to number among my friends.

What was interesting, but not surprising, was that in all the anecdotes published in this newspaper last week, from drivers earning hundreds of pounds offering these lifts, there was no mention at all of any of them trotting along to the ground floor of Cyril Le Marquand House and declaring this earned income to those very nice people from the Income Tax Department. By my reckoning, if these people work a weekend – Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings – for a hundred notes a night then that’s roughly fifteen grand a year, which should mean a fifth, some £3,000, being handed over in tax.

What a joke. What an absolute joke. I’d put money on none of them declaring a bloody penny of it, but on the admission of one of them at least, they’re happy to play the system in their favour by trotting down to Social Security in La Motte Street where, in respect of the father-of-three from Portugal, the nice people down there even provide a form in his own language so that he can claim money. And before I get the racist card lobbed in my direction, I am equally critical of these lawbreakers no matter where they come from – Lisbon, Liverpool, l’Ancresse in Guernsey, or Longueville.

And finally…The state of Arkansas killed three people last week for no better reason than the label on a packet of drugs gave last Sunday as the expiry date. Barbaric is not the word.

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