A TAXI driver has been fined for refusing to take a fare from a blind couple and their guide dogs.

Sallahaddin Abdullah was fined £200 and ordered to pay £1,000 court costs after he was found guilty of abandoning Paul and Kerry Monaghan on the pavement outside Cambridge Railway Station.

The married couple were stranded as they tried to make their way to Addenbrooke's Hospital for an appointment on August 15 last year.

Abdullah told Cambridge Magistrates' Court: "Sorry, I sneeze; my religion" before taking another passenger from the queue and driving away. The court was told this was to imply he was allergic to dogs.

The stunned couple, from North Walsham in Norfolk, are both registered blind, and Mrs Monaghan is also deaf.

The next taxi driver at the rank picked up the couple and took a note of Abdullah's cab number so they could make a complaint.

Abdullah, of Ditchburn Place, Cambridge, pleaded not guilty to a charge of refusing or neglecting to drive the couple without a reasonable excuse - a charge made under the Police Clauses Act dating from 1847.

But after a one-day trial the 40-year-old was found guilty.

The court heard yesterday (Wednesday, 13 June) how Abdullah has worked as a self-employed taxi driver for the past three years.

He said: "There is not a single driver who would say he cannot take the blind and guide dogs, especially at the station where there is CCTV, lots of other drivers and queues of passengers. I know my responsibilities.

"They were not first in the queue. Another man was so I took him."

He also denied making excuses which implied he was allergic to dogs and that it was against his religion to take them in his taxi.

Earlier in the day, Mr Monaghan took to the witness stand, accompanied by his guide dog Baker.

He told the court how he and his wife needed to be led to the taxi rank by a member of railway staff, who waited with them at the queue.

During cross-examination, he was quizzed over whether he had heard the taxi driver correctly.

He replied: "It is only my eyesight I have a problem with, not my ears."

Magistrates fined Abdullah £200, and his taxi licence is now expected to be the subject of a review.

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