A TAXI driver has been cleared of charging a disabled passenger extra to carry a wheelchair.

Under Section 165 of the Equality Act, which came into force at the beginning of last year, taxi drivers are not allowed to charge wheelchair users more for a journey than non-disabled passengers.

Yesterday Bolton Council sought to prosecute driver Shafique Rehman, claiming he had charged Barbara Holden and her husband, who is in a wheelchair, £12 for a 3.7 mile journey from Breightmet Health Centre to their home in Astley Bridge on June 1 last year.

Robin Kitching, prosecuting on behalf of the council, said, according to Cobra Taxi's rates, the cost of such a journey, carrying up to four people, should have been £5.81.

Mrs Holden told the court she had asked the receptionist at the health centre to call her a taxi and Rehman turned up in his Fiat Scudo minibus.

They got into the vehicle, but at the end of the journey a £12 fare was requested.

"I asked him how much it was because previously I had a taxi [for a similar journey] and it was £8 so I queried the fare," she said.

Mrs Holden said she called Cobra Taxis and then complained to Bolton Council.

Rehman, aged 44, of Central Avenue, Farnworth, stressed that he had not known one of his passengers was a wheelchair user until he arrived at the health centre to collect them. He said that he had been at Asda in Farnworth when he was contacted by Cobra's operator asking him to collect the fare.

"I told the radio operator it was too far and to get someone else," he said. But the operator replied that no one was available for the job and a fare of £12 had been quoted. "I went because it is a good fare," he said.

Taxi firms can quote passengers different rates for jobs, such as trips to the airport, so long as any charge is not higher because one of the passengers is a wheelchair user.

And magistrates found Rehman, who has been a taxi driver for 11 years, not guilty of breaching the Equality Act after accepting he had not charged Mrs Holden extra for carrying a wheelchair.

Speaking after the hearing Mr Rehman said he had "surprised" and upset to be prosecuted. "I am working class and it was a waste of my time," he said. "I know I have to follow the law and in the past I have never had any complaint."

He called on Bolton Council to make the legislation about carrying disabled people clearer to taxi companies.

Last month Pervez Sajid became the first taxi driver in Bolton to be convicted under the new law.