A taxi driver who refused to take a breath-test after a roadside fracas with a drunken customer has been allowed to return to work.
John Burns, 54, was suspended from plying for hire by the council licensing authority after getting involved in a row with customer John Hayden beside the A9 near the North Kessock junction on December 27 last year.
He was spared a driving ban after an appearance at Inverness Sheriff Court last month – but had to wait until yesterday for his licence to practice as a taxi driver to be renewed.
At a private hearing, Highland Council’s licensing board voted to allow Mr Burns to return to work.
Later Mr Burns, who has a previously unblemished 18-year taxi driving record, said he was “relieved” by the ruling and he hoped to return to work by the end of the week.
He said: “I would like to thank the council for accepting my position, and the police for not opposing my reinstatement.”
Mr Burns was fined £315 for his part in the incident, as well as having 10 points added to his licence.
The taxi driver got involved in a row when Mr Hayden said he was not going to pay his fare.
Burns stopped his car and ordered him out of the vehicle and then Hayden began swinging punches at him, it was said in court.
Police officers on patrol spotted the bizarre drama unfolding and intervened.
Fiscal depute Fraser Matheson told Inverness Sheriff Court that the two men had then been taken to Burnett Road Police Station, where Mr Burns was asked to give breath samples.
Mr Matheson said: “He refused and told police ‘It is not my fault. The guy in the taxi committed the offence’.”
Hayden, 38, of 8 Marchburn Court, North Kessock, admitted breaking the peace by swinging punches at Burns and behaving in a threatening manner. Sentence was deferred until July 9.
Mr Burns, of 127A Murray Terrace, Smithton, admitted refusing to take a breath-test. His solicitor John MacColl told Sheriff Brian Cameron that his client had “definitely, 100%, had not consumed alcohol that day”.