This story came from the Manchester Evening News.
Is their anyone out there that doesn't recognise what's happening?
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Risks laughed off in queue for illegal lift
A MAN claiming to be a taxi driver is giving young people illegal lifts home.
He may have looked like any Mr Average parking up to collect his girlfriend after a night out, but to the gaggle of revellers hanging around city centre clubs had he was their illegal lift home.
The 11-year-old Ford Escort estate had slowly pulled up at the junction of Canal Street, weaving through the revellers on heaving Princess Street.
Several people, including us, made a bee-line for him. He was a bogus cab driver and by midnight, a makeshift rank had already gathered with people eager for his custom.
He told us he was a taxi driver and took us to our destination two miles away and charged us a fiver. He had no plates or meter and refused to enter into any conversation.
Half-an-hour later, back at the same rank, there was another mad dash as another car, an old Ford Escort saloon pulled up. Seasoned customers recognised him as a bogus cabbie and we managed to get to the front of the queue and get our lift.
The M.E.N. asked him if he was a taxi driver and he said he was. Cheerfully, he chatted about ours being the first job of the night and he intended to be out until 3am.
Those are the best hours, I come out at this time every Friday and Saturday,he said, charging us £2.70 for the same journey.
When our photographer snatched his picture seconds after he had dropped us off, he insisted I don't know why you're taking my photo, I've done nothing wrong, just been to drop my sister of home.
No checks
In the cold light of day, people using the scores of bogus cabs touring the city centre know they have no idea who these drivers are.
No one is saying that every one of the men has a sinister reason to pick people up illegally, for many it could just be an easy way to earn a few quid. But anyone getting into an illegal cab is trusting a driver who has had no police checks on his background and is totally uninsured.
And there can be few people unaware of the massive police operation to catch the bogus cabbies responsible for two rapes and numerous sex attacks.
So what young woman in her right mind would stop a complete stranger in the early hours and trust him to see her home safely? But in an alcohol-induced fog, they will do whatever it takes to get there.
Logic and any thoughts of self-preservation go right out of the window. The M.E.N. watched as scantily-dressed girls tried to open vehicle doors, often when moving. We also saw two teenage girls clamber into a Rover parked in a side road. They asked the male driver if it was a taxi. He said it wasn't, but they begged him to give them a lift.
He started giggling, spoke quietly into a mobile phone and then said he would give one of the girls a lift if she ditched her mate.
As they discussed the risks outside his car, another pal turned up and shouted at them not to be so stupid.
But it's the only way we will get home, they complained. Show us a proper taxi and we'll get in it.
Not Enough Cabs
That is the crazy problem which hits Manchester city centre on Friday and Saturday nights. There are simply not enough Hackney cabs or late night buses to get people home. Private hire drivers are not supposed to stop unless they have been pre-booked although we saw scores doing exactly that.
People we spoke to admitted that when they got into a bogus cab they knew it was a risky business.
One 32-year-old male office worker said: Getting out of the city centre late at night is a nightmare.
I've got into private hires, even though they're not meant to stop, but when it's late and you just want to get home, anything will do.
But he admitted to urging female friends to steer clear.
Girls who have got into these cabs admitted feeling nervous, but said that after a few drinks, they didn't think too much about the dangers.
One 20-year-old shop assistant said: When I tell people at work I get these bogus cabs, they go mad at me. Yes, I've heard about the rapes, but then I think well, it's not going to happen to me, is it?
But no one gets into these cars for choice. It's because there isn't enough late-night public transport and it seems so daft that private hires aren't supposed to stop when they drive by empty.
She then dashed off as a friend shouted she'd got a cab' it was a bogus one and we saw the driver urging them to get in quickly as a police van rounded the corner.