A taxi driver licence shall be revoked if the holder has demonstrated unsuitability to serve as a taxi driver by virtue of criminal activity or due to other irregularities. If the irregularity is not so grave that the taxi driver license should be revoked, a warning may be issued instead.
As opposed to most other sexual offences, purchases of sexual services are not formulated as an offence against a person but, rather, protect public interests. Thus, in the opinion of the Supreme Administrative Court, the character of the offence involved is not one according to which a taxi driver who has been found guilty thereof is to regularly lose his or her taxi driver licence.
Instead, an individualised and overall assessment of what the taxi driver is accused of must be made. In this assessment, the Supreme Administrative Court concluded that the purchase of the sexual service could not be considered to undermine confidence in the taxi driver to be responsible for the security of the travellers in such a manner that he has demonstrated unsuitability to serve as a taxi driver. There were therefore no grounds for revocation.
The question then arose whether a warning should be issued to the taxi driver. It is apparent from the preparatory works that warnings are to be issued when such appear to be more justified than revocation, e.g. in minor cases of misconduct in the form of less serious offences, and should be able to be applied before the conditions are such that revocation must occur. The purchase of sexual services is an offense for which the scale of penalties provide only imprisonment. Accordingly, there are grounds to issue him a warning.