Edinburgh Cab Driver Banned as Landlord

0:00It's March 31st. This is Edinburgh News today, AI-powered stories from your city. I'm Corey with the story. An Edinburgh cab driver named Muhammad Umar just got booted from the city's landlord register after counselors learned he was renting out five. Properties. This comes even though he held onto his private hire license despite a past drug conviction tied to cannabis growing in one of his flats. Back in February, at a licensing hearing, Umar explained the drug bust happened during tough times with COVID in his mom and hospital. Police found a big cannabis set up worth over 40,000 pounds in his property after a water leak complaint, leading to a 300-hour community payback order for him. Counselors gave him a break then, suspending his driving license for just 28 days since he claimed driving was his only job to support his family. He admitted panicking and not calling cops right away, taking full blame. But on Monday, new info came up about his five rentals plus a fresh traffic violation

1:00where he cut through a stop line of cars, earning a six, 100 pound fine, 40 pounds surcharge, and six penalty points. That sealed the deal for them. Now Umar can't let properties anymore, as the committee ruled his drug history makes him unfit. In a rare move, they struck off four landlords that day, showing their cracking down harder on these cases.