³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

HULL TAXI TROUBLES

Hull City Council are hunting out bogus taxi drivers

Hull has just over 1000 taxis and private hire vehicles but legitimate, licenced drivers claim illegal ‘pirates’ driving unlicensed cars are muscling in on their territory.

In a bid to clean up the ranks, Hull City Council have set up an undercover squad team.

Jess and Jane pose as night clubbers trying to get home, flagging down cars, then taking them to a rendezvous with trading standards officials. They carry concealed tape recorders to gather evidence.

Anger

Safe not sorry - young women should be careful about using unlicensed cabs

Many of the Council’s targets are private hire drivers, who are only permitted by law to carry passengers who have pre-booked a journey.

Many are tempted to stop for customers flagging them down, in contravention of their licenses. They face stiff fines if convicted.

Inside Out spoke to a licensed Private Hire driver who is pending prosecution.

He said of the Council’s scheme, "It’s just a publicity stunt. There are illegal cabs driving around this town every night."

"We report them to the police but neither they or the licensing does anything."

Real danger

Police and council officials are also worried about the growing number of unlicensed cars on the streets after midnight.

Inside Out's cameras caught one car - a Fiat - trying to pick up the undercover investigators.

They refused to get in but a young woman did. Jess said, "She will be very lucky if she got home, that's all I can say."

Serious sexual assaults and even murders have been committed by bogus taxi drivers in many Yorkshire cities. In Leeds, one fake cabbie raped three women before he was jailed three years ago.

Lucy, an 18 year old student in Hull describes an incident involving a bogus taxi, "I think he was leading us into a trap. We just had no idea where we were so we just opened the doors as it was moving and ran."

"I took my shoes off and ran. He got out of the car and banged his fists against the roof and shouted ‘come back’. My heart was beating very fast."

Police concern

Taxi inspectors check out the credentials of cabs

Inspector Steve Page of Humberside Police says, "People pour out of the nightclubs wandering into the road waving at absolutely anything and everything."

"They will not recognise the difference between a taxi a police car or an ambulance… and that's where the illicit taxi operators start to take advantage."

The police view was backed up by an experiment conducted by the Inside Out team, who parked an unmarked saloon outside a number of pubs and clubs in Hull.

In just 20 minutes, six people attempted to get in, in the mistaken belief the car was a taxi.