A taxi driver on a council contract to take a child with special needs to and from school had been driving without any insurance, Truro magistrates have heard.

Ashley Stephen Blewett, 24, of Pendennis Road, Falmouth, pleaded guilty at Truro Magistrates Court to using a BMW for private hire without the appropriate licence, after other taxi drivers “grassed” on him, the court was told.

Without the proper private hire licence, Cornwall Council prosecutor Mark Andrews said, his insurance was invalid.

Blewett, from Arrow Taxis, had a contract with the council’s passenger transport unit to collect the boy from St Columb Major and take him to a unit at Penryn College for pupils with special needs, often students who were particularly vulnerable, and take him home later.

In July he had been seen most days with the boy, going to Penryn in the BMW, and had been reported by other hackney carriage drivers who recognised him.

On one occasion a council officer saw him with the boy and another passenger.

When he was spoken to he said he was in the process of getting the car licensed.

“That licence is extremely important for public safety and passengers, put at risk without insurance,” said Mr Andrews.

Blewett told the magistrates he knew what he had done was wrong, but did not know his insurance would be invalidated.

He said another car which previously had a private hire permit had broken down, and he could not afford to fix it, using the BMW in its place.

Chairman Fiona Roberts told him:”You were a taxi driver by trade, you blatantly operated, and would have known the insurance was not valid. If you had had an accident it would have been terrible, your girl friend as a passenger and a vulnerable child.

“You were grassed up by other taxi drivers.”

Blewett was told to pay £1,309.92 in a fine, costs and charges.