Chelmsford cabbies far from happy over unsolved crimesDISGRACEFUL: Figures revealed to the Chronicle show 90 per cent of offences committed against taxi drivers go unsolvedNINE out of ten crimes committed against Chelmsford taxi drivers are going unsolved, new figures reveal.
Robbery, assaults and fare evasion are among 154 of 171 offences reported in the past three years not dealt with by the police.
Two of the city's 186 licensed cabbies branded the numbers "disgraceful" and "unsurprising".
"That's one offence for every Hackney carriage vehicle on the road in Chelmsford," said Broomfield-based Your Cabbie taxi service owner Russell Brigden.
"You go to work and every single one of you runs the risk of a criminal offence being committed against you in the space of three years – who wants to run that risk?
"It's absurd and disgraceful, and it's disgraceful the number that go unsolved. It's like saying you can commit these offences and get away with it."
In the response to a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Chronicle, figures released last week showed in 12 of the 171 reports the offence led to a charge, including sexual assault on a male driver.
Just one person was charged with making off without payment, termed 'bilking' in the job, out of a total of 47 bilking reports over the three years.
Mr Brigden, 43, said police dismiss bilking as a civil offence if the passenger showed an effort to at least try paying.
Section Three of the Theft Act 1978 states it's a crime to dishonestly make off with intent to avoid payment.
But the figures also show the number of reported offences has decreased year on year by about 25 per cent.
"It might be a decline in the number of people using taxis," added Mr Brigden.
Ian Vernon, chairman of the 116-member Chelmsford Taxi Association, has suggested to the city council, but to no avail, using money raised from the council's late night levy to fund CCTV cameras in each cab at about £300 a piece.
The levy will charge venues serving alcohol beyond 1am as much as £1,493 per year from Saturday, November 1.
"We are public facing, but people who are public facing deserve the same protection as any individual," said Mr Vernon.
"Why should any individual have to expect bad behaviour? We know it happens but it doesn't mean it's acceptable.
"More can be done. Police should act quicker for members of the taxi trade to treat incidents seriously, even those relating to non-paying of taxi fares. The figures state clearly there seems to be a problem in getting an outcome out of this."
Former Chelmsford taxi driver Mehdi Masoudi was last month found guilty of causing actual bodily harm by stabbing Tesco worker Isaac Carter at the Viaduct Road rank with a car tool, but only after the victim kicked his cab and punched him.
Chelmsford and Maldon district commander for Essex Police, Alan Cook, said he was surprised by the numbers but said the prospect of funding CCTV cameras sounded like "an excellent idea".
"I do think taxi drivers deserve the right to go around their business uninterrupted and should get a good response from us," said Mr Cook.
"If there is a problem with this going on we will take it further with our partners."
In reference to slow response times, he said: "All incidents that are reported to us are taken seriously and like with everything, the volume of demand is compared against the level of the crime."
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