An Uber driver from Bradford has been handed a £1,404 court bill for working illegally in York.

Victoria Waudby, prosecuting, said a joint City of York Council and police task force stopped Sohail Ahmed, 45, on Holgate Road late on Ladies Day during Ebor week at York races last summer.

He had two passengers in the back of the car.

Although he had a taxi licence from Rossendale Borough Council in Lancashire, that didn’t allow him to pick up fares in York.

Ahmed, of Wensleydale Road, Thornbury, Bradford, did not attend York Magistrates Court to answer charges of plying for hire as a taxi driver and driving without insurance.

York magistrates convicted him in his absence and fined him £860 with a £66 statutory surcharge with £478.20 prosecution costs.

Mrs Waudby, acting for the council, said its licensing officer and police carried out checks of taxis operating in York between 6pm and 2am on Thursday August 24 last year.

They stopped Ahmed at 10.15pm at the wheel of a silver Toyota Auris on Holgate Road.

He had a defective offside light.

He showed them his hackney driver’s licence.

But when they checked Uber’s records of the bookings he had had that night, they found he didn’t have a booking for that journey.

Although he had insurance for his car, it didn’t cover his journey in York, because his passengers hadn’t booked him through the Uber booking app.