Uber driver’s licence revoked after female passenger made ‘serious complaint of a sexual nature’
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A Bolton taxi driver had his licence revoked after allegations were made that he acted in an’ inappropriate sexual way’ towards a female passenger.
A meeting of Bolton Council’s licensing committee heard that the alleged incident happened when the man was working as an Uber driver in the town.
As he held a private hire taxi licence issued by the council, the hearing was necessary for public safety reasons.
The panel of councillors considered a report which set out details of alleged misconduct by the driver, including an account about the incident produced by Uber.
Minutes of the meeting, which took place in April, with press and public excluded for privacy reasons, have recently been published by the council.
The report states: “The committee found that, on consideration of all the evidence and submissions, on the balance of probabilities, the driver did act in an inappropriate sexual way towards a female passenger in his vehicle and also found the detailed account by the passenger complainant to be credible.”
The meeting heard the driver denied all allegations and that he had made subsequent allegations of inappropriate behaviour by the female passenger in his vehicle which were ‘terrible’, according to the driver.
Councillors heard that despite his claims, he did not ask the woman to get out of the vehicle, did not report his allegations to police and subsequently gave the passenger a good rating of 5-star on the Uber app when he had previously given other passengers a lower rating.
The report said: “The committee were of the opinion that the driver was trying to discredit the passenger and found that his account of the passenger’s abuse could be doubted in terms of timing and the driver’s version of events.”
The licensing panel noted that the driver, a licence holder for only three months, said he did not initially recall this fare but later recalled a female allegedly being abusive towards him for 25 minutes.
The driver’s identity and when the alleged incident took place have not been disclosed by the council. The committee unanimously found that there was reasonable cause to revoke his licence, with immediate effect, on the grounds of public safety, given there had been a serious complaint of a sexual nature.
At the time of publication, Uber had not responded to a request for comment.
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