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When Queenstown bus
driver Garry Adams was 16 he went to Dunedin's St Kilda beach one night to
"fool around" with a 15-year-old girl. No clothes were removed
in the consensual activity, which he described as heavy petting. But after
the girl was late home, her parents complained to police and he was charged
with indecent assault. "The police told
me if I pleaded guilty, there would be a $55 fine and it would go away. Thirty-five
years later it's coming back to haunt me. This is going to destroy my
life," he said. Adams is one of 209 bus
and taxi drivers who will lose their licences tomorrow when new laws
preventing people with certain convictions from holding a passenger transport
licence come into force. Land Transport New Zealand figures show a third of
their crimes are more than 30 years old - 85% are over 10 years old. Convicted murderers and
people with sex convictions are unable to appeal against the ban. Of those
affected by the changes, two are murderers and more than 100 have sex-related
convictions. However, 47 drivers can
apply to have their licences reinstated because their convictions appear in a
list of crimes specified in the legislation which includes attempted murder,
contract killing, kidnapping, robbery, grievous bodily harm, infecting with
disease and throwing acid. Transport Safety
Minister Harry Duynhoven has promised to revisit the legislation when
parliament reconvenes on February 7. Adams said he and other
victims of the legislation wanted the right to earn a living while it was
sorted out. His wife Donna and
employer Real Journeys were standing by him. He was on paid stress leave
while the company lobbied the government to reinstate his licence. Bus and Coach
Association deputy executive director Dave Smith said he had been inundated
with calls and emails from anguished small business operators who would
struggle to stay afloat after losing key staff due to the law changes. Residents of Reefton
are likely to be left without a taxi service as a result of the new laws.
Kevin Arnesen and his wife operate the West Coast town's only taxi and
shuttle service, but will be forced to close down after his licence expires
tomorrow because of a 40-year-old conviction. The 53-year-old was 13
when he was convicted of rape and sent to a boys home after touching a five-
year-old girl's genitals. "It was just kids experimenting. I never tried
to force myself on her," he said. Arnesen said he also
had convictions for burglary and falling asleep while driving, but had kept
his nose clean for the last decade. The couple could not afford to pay a
replacement driver. Questions have also
been raised about inequities in the way the law may be applied. A damning Audit Office
report last year on taxi industry checks blasted a lack of co-operation
between cab licensing agency Land Transport New Zealand, the police and the
Immigration Service. It said little had
changed since a similar report in 1997, but since deregulation, taxi driver
numbers had risen from 2567 in 1989 to 23,000 in 2004. Land Transport
spokesman Andy Knackstedt said it was difficult to carry out background
checks on immigrants from corrupt countries. Records were often incomplete or
non-existent from countries like Somalia, where civil society has all but
broken down. He said Land Transport
was looking at ways to tighten screening. One solution discussed was
requiring applicants to have resided in New Zealand for five years with a
clean record.
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