A TAXI driver put the lives of his passengers at risk after continuing to work in Musselburgh, despite being diagnosed with coronavirus.

Gordon Leadbetter, 59, picked up “vulnerable” members of the public after he had tested positive for Covid-19 and had been ordered to stay at home and self-isolate.

Leadbetter exposed his unaware passengers to the “risk of a heightened communication of transmission” of the SARS-CoV-2 disease while they were in his cab over the festive period last year.

The taxi driver appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today (Tuesday), where he pleaded guilty to culpably and recklessly carrying on his business as a taxi driver to the danger of his passengers' lives and health between December 17 and 26 last year.

Sheriff Chris Dickson was told that the Crown had not prepared a written narrative regarding the case and as a result no details of the offence were read out in court.

The sheriff accepted the driver’s guilty plea and deferred sentence for the preparation of reports and for the written narration to be prepared to next month.

Leadbetter, of Pinkie Terrace, Musselburgh, was granted bail.

He pleaded guilty to culpably and recklessly carrying on business as a taxi driver and allowing passengers to enter his vehicle, including those he knew to be particularly vulnerable to infection of SARS-CoV-2 due to their medical conditions.

The charge states that the taxi driver carried out the course of conduct after testing positive for the Covid-19 virus and ought to have been self-isolating, and thus exposed his passengers to immediate risk of transmission of the virus, all to the danger of their lives and health, at various locations in Musselburgh and elsewhere between December 17 and 26 last year.