Patrick Lyons loses appeal against taxi licence revocation

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Patrick Lyons failed in an appeal against the revocation of his taxi licence at Dublin District Court on 25 November 2019.

Lyons had been convicted earlier that month of stealing approximately €4,300 from passengers after taking their bank cards. He received a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence.

He had appealed against the Garda Carriage Office’s revocation of his licence. Lyons told the hearing that he had been blamed after a botched drug deal and had to pay up. He said he had been heavily abusing cocaine and alcohol at the time and insisted he had changed.

Refusing the appeal, Judge Michael Coghlan said a taxi licence was a privilege, not a right. He ruled that the public would be placed in danger given Lyons’s background and his friendship with “undesirable elements”.