A TAXI driver featured in a RTÉ's Prime Time Investigatesprogramme has brought a legal challenge against the National Transport Authority's decision to suspend his public service vehicle licences.
For several years Oluwaseyi Okerayi operated a business by hiring out both taxi plates and cars to others.
Last May the National Transport Authority suspended “with immediate effect” the 25 public service licences he held following the Prime Time programme which alleged he rented out cars that were unroadworthy to individuals who did not have licences.
In his High Court proceedings Mr Okerayi, of Fitzherbert Court, Slane Road, Navan, Co Meath, denies any wrongdoing alleged in the programme.
He says the decision to suspend the licences was “a knee-jerk response to a sensationalist and inaccurate TV programme carried out without proper investigation”.
He also argues there is no legal basis to continued suspension because investigations and tests carried out by both the Garda and the transport authority to date show that nearly all his vehicles are roadworthy and not dangerously defective.
Permission to bring the proceedings, aimed at overturning the suspension, was granted at the High Court by Mr Justice Barry White on an ex-parte (one side only) basis.
The judge made the matter returnable before the High Court to a date next month when the new legal term commences.
Moving the application Micheál Ó Higgins SC, appearing with Keith Spencer, said it was their client’s claim that his licences were suspended on May 18th last before any of his vehicles were inspected nor were any reasons given to him for the suspension. The authority’s decision was unfounded, unlawful, unfair, disproportionate, and that his rights had been violated. As a result of the suspension Mr Okerayi is now left without a livelihood and is in considerable financial arrears.
In an affidavit to the court Mr Okerayi, a married father of two children who moved to Ireland from Nigeria in 2002, said that he was the subject of a Prime Timeprogramme broadcast on May 16th last. He said the programme alleged he rented out cars that were unroadworthy to individuals who did not have licences.
He was “shocked when he saw the contents of the programme” as the broadcast “had deliberately misrepresented certain facts and distorted the true version of events”.
He said he carries out the legitimate and perfectly lawful business of renting out taxi plates and vehicles and always checked out and took photocopies of drivers’ documentation before renting out a taxi. He always repaired any defects in the cars once they were brought to his attention.
Shortly after the programme was aired representatives from the authority seized documents from his home and he was informed that his licences were being suspended pending a further investigation. He also rejected any suggestion in the RTÉ programme that his cars passed their NCT tests due to impropriety on his part. He said that a number of his cars have been tested by both the Garda and the transport authority.
While some minor defects were detected in a couple of cars only one vehicle was found to be unroadworthy.