A former Oxfordshire taxi driver has been convicted of fraud and insurance offences after going to extraordinary lengths to keep working long after his licence had expired.
Stuart Thomas Sharp, 54, of Meadow View Road, Kennington, appeared at Reading Magistrates’ Court on 24 April where he pleaded guilty to five charges. He was handed a 24-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, eight penalty points on his DVLA licence for driving without insurance, a £900 costs order and a £156 victim surcharge — a total of £1,056.
Here’s where it gets brazen. Sharp’s taxi driver licence with Vale of White Horse District Council had expired back in January 2023. His vehicle hadn’t been licensed with the council since August 2023. By any normal measure, he should have hung up the keys two and a half years ago.
Instead, the council says he forged his own taxi driver licence, his driver’s badge and his vehicle plate, then presented the lot to a taxi operator as evidence he was still legally allowed to work. He continued picking up passengers and accepting bookings, including jobs at Radley College — completely uninsured and entirely outside the licensing regime designed to keep passengers safe.
The whole thing unravelled in May 2025 when a member of the public who’d had an altercation with Sharp recognised him later working as a “taxi driver” at the college. They reported the registration and the licence plate number to the council. A records check showed neither was valid.
When the council asked Sharp to return the documents, he claimed he’d thrown them away. ANPR camera images showed his vehicle still displaying them — so that story didn’t hold up either.
Magistrates put the case in the highest sentencing category, describing it as planned deceit over a long period. Councillor Helen Pighills, Cabinet Member for Community Health and Wellbeing at Vale of White Horse, said the case demonstrated “a clear attempt to undermine public safety, the licensing regime and bypass important safety checks.”
For honest drivers who pay their fees, do their DBS checks, sit their knowledge tests and renew on time, cases like this are genuinely infuriating. The licensing system exists for a reason — passenger safety, insurance cover, accountability. Anyone forging documents is undermining the whole trade, and rightly faces serious consequences when caught.
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