Taxi Driver Online

Dundee taxi driver faces prison after preying on young passengers

A rapist taxi driver who preyed on teenage girls after picking them up as fares in Dundee city centre has been jailed.
Saifal Zaveri, 42, subjected a 17-year-old student to a rape ordeal in his taxi after driving away from her home destination in Dundee.

The married father-of-three also molested a 16-year-old passenger during a journey from Dundee to Monifieth.

Zaveri carried out an oral rape attack on the older girl on August 14 2021 after agreeing to drive her residential accommodation in Dundee.

The woman, now 19, told the High Court in Edinburgh that after getting into Zaveri’s taxi he drove her to her address but turned the car around and went to a lay-by.

She said: “I was scared. I just remember him going on about sexual things.” “First of all he was saying I was good looking and then he went to kissing me. “I had a top on with a zip down the front of it and he unzipped it.”

She told the prosecutor she did not want any of it to happen. She said his actions were carried out quite aggressively. The woman said Zaveri then exposed himself.

“He grabbed the back of my head and was trying to push it down. “He pushed it down towards his groin.” She told advocate depute Margaret Barron that after the rape “he said that it was good”.

The student got back to her address in Dundee and contacted a friend through Snapchat voice notes. She said she was feeling “awful” at the time and added: “I was crying.” Her friend told the court she sounded “terrified” and “scared”.

Zaveri touched the younger girl on the thigh and subjected her to a penetrative assault as she sat in the front seat of his cab on March 1 2020. He told the court nothing sexual happened with the younger girl, who had got in his taxi with a friend.

He said she was feeling cold and kept putting her hand on his hand. He dropped the girls off after the journey and said everything was ” fine” at the time.

Zaveri admitted there was sexual activity with the older girl but claimed it was consensual. He told the court: “I let my family down.”

Zaveri of Mayfield Grove, Dundee, had denied sexually assaulting the 16-year-old in 2020 and sexually assaulting and raping the 17-year-old in 2021 but was found guilty of both offences.

During the police investigation it was discovered a CCTV system fitted inside the Zaferi’s taxi had not recorded material for months before the sex attack.

Following the jury’s verdicts the trial judge, Lord Fairley, ordered Zaveri, who had been on bail, be remanded in custody ahead of sentencing.

The judge called for a background report and risk assessment to be prepared.

He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and is due to be sentenced on August 4 at the High Court in Glasgow.

_________________
IDFIMH

I wonder if it's the same fella that had a bit of bad luck with his motor.

https://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/vi ... =2&t=33212

_________________
IDFIMH

or took advantage by claiming £70 got stolen well, now his lucks going to get far worse !

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Taxi driver who raped and sexually assaulted teens in cab jailed

A taxi driver who raped a teenager and sexually assaulted another in his private hire has been jailed for eight years.

Saifal Zaveri preyed on a terrified 17-year-old student after picking her up in Dundee on August 14 2021.

The married 42-year-old had earlier molested and groped another young woman in his private hire taxi on March 1, 2020.

On Thursday, Zaveri was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.

He had been convicted of rape and sexual assault after a trial in Edinburgh in June.

It emerged Zaveri already had a previous conviction for stalking a teenage girl when he was aged 36 at the time.

His lawyer Kris Gilmartin told the sentencing hearing that the rapist had urged him to ask Lord Fairley to consider an alternative to jail.

But, the judge dismissed the request for what he branded “opportunistic and predatory” crimes aggravated by a serious breach of trust.

Praising the two victims, Lord Fairley told Zaveri: “The young women demonstrated great courage in giving evidence against you.

“It did not surprise me the jury found you guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

“I have now read the victim statements and it is quite clear your actions have had a devastating effect on each of them.

“Your instructions to Mr Gilmartin to seek a non custodial sentence are wildly unrealistic and reflect a troubling lack of insight to the seriousness of your offending.”

Zaveri will be monitored for a further three years on his release and be on the sex offenders list indefinitely.

A woman in a group of his family and friends collapsed in tears in the courtroom as he was lead handcuffed to the cells.

The rape victim earlier told jurors how Zaveri had been driving her to address in Dundee when he instead pulled into a lay-by.

She recalled: “I was scared. I just remember him going on about sexual things.

“First of all he was saying I was good looking and then he went to kissing me.

“I had a top on with a zip down the front of it and he unzipped it.”

The young woman told prosecutor Margaret Barron her attacker was aggressive before going on to rape her.

Zaveri went on to state to her: “That was good.”

The teenager eventually escaped before contacting a friend in tears via Snapchat.

Zaveri had earlier pounced on a 16-year-old girl on a journey from Dundee to Monifieth in Angus.

He struck as she sat in the front of his taxi.

Zaveri, also of Dundee, claimed in his evidence that there had been consensual sexual activity with the rape victim.

He told jurors: “I let my family down.”

The predator also insisted nothing happened with the other girl and that all was “fine” when the teenager and her friend got out his vehicle.

The court heard that Zaveri maintained his innocence.

A number of letters of support – including from his wife and an Islamic society group – were handed to Lord Fairley to consider.

_________________
IDFIMH

What to cut off his knob?

_________________
IDFIMH

perhaps sharia law instead

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

A few years ago he ran a newsagents shop in the city centre, apparently. Sure I remember buying stuff in there once or twice, and his face does seem familiar. Although maybe it was because of some newspaper article he was featured in at the time, but I can't recall what it was about, and can't see anything online apart from the current stuff.

But it's ironic that he was photographed back then with copies of the Evening Telegraph, and very probably he's now splattered all over the front page himself




Images: DC Thomson Media

Dundee rape survivor: ‘Why was my attacker given taxi badge despite stalking conviction?’

A student raped by a “predatory” Dundee taxi driver has called for an urgent tightening of licensing rules after it emerged he was allowed to keep his taxi badge, despite a conviction for stalking a teenage girl.

The woman was just 17 when licensed cabbie Saifal Zaveri picked her up as a fare after a night out with friends in 2021.
Instead of taking her straight home, the twisted father-of-three turned his taxi around and parked in a layby, where he sexually assaulted and raped her.

Last week, 42-year-old Zaveri was jailed for eight years for the attack, as well as a sexual assault on another teenage passenger in 2020.

It was only after he was caged at the High Court in Glasgow that victims learned of his 2017 conviction for stalking a young woman in Dundee.

Lasting impact

Zaveri’s older victim, now 19, was forced in court to recall her terror when the taxi driver took an unexpected detour, away from her destination.

“I was scared,” she told his trial at Edinburgh High Court.

She told prosecutors she did not want any of it to happen.

The woman, who maintained her right to anonymity when speaking to The Courier, said her ordeal has had a lasting impact. “It has been awful. “I can hardly leave the house. I can’t get into taxis. “My partner works all day, so he isn’t there to drive me around.”

She said there was a sense of genuine closure when Zaveri was handed an 11-year extended sentence – eight years of it to be served in prison.

“I was actually shocked. “I was expecting him to get jailed but I was thinking it would be for something like eight months – I didn’t expect him to get eight years.”

At sentencing, Lord Fairley praised the bravery of Zaveri’s victims for speaking out and said he was “not surprised” the jury had returned a guilty verdict. He went on to reveal Zaveri’s earlier conviction.

“In common with these latest crimes, that offence was committed against a young woman who was a teenager, when you were 36 years old,” the judge said.

‘No idea’ about previous conviction

The student told us: “I had no idea about this conviction until I read it in the court report. “I can’t understand why he was registered as a taxi driver after this offence, giving him another opportunity to assault young teenagers. “Surely this was a red flag.”

She said: “Our council is meant to make sure people like this aren’t allowed to be taxi drivers, especially as many young people use them to get home on a regular basis.”

The teenager said if Zaveri’s background had been thoroughly checked and assessed “I would never have been raped and abused.

“Other girls would have never been abused. This has ruined our lives. “This could have been massively prevented.”

She has pointed the finger at Dundee City Council – which approves taxi and private hire licences – and Tele Taxis, the firm through which she booked Zaveri’s cab on the night she was attacked.

“People use these services all the time,” she said. “That’s why I’m so shocked this has been allowed to happen. “There really needs to be a review of the way people are assessed for taxi licences.”

Licence decision discussions are ‘private’

Zaveri began work as a taxi driver after the closure of his newsagents businesses in Reform Street in early 2018. He became a director and driver for Abertay Cabs Ltd in April that year. He resigned in April 2021, nearly a year after his first penetrative assault on his younger victim.

We asked Dundee City Council to explain why Zaveri was allowed a licence, despite his conviction. We also asked if the authority had been notified about his criminal past.

A spokesman replied: “As part of its general procedures in granting taxi driver’s licences, the licensing committee takes into account all information available from the applicant and, if applicable, Police Scotland before making any decision. “As these discussions are held in private, the council is not in a position to provide any details publicly about any of these matters.”

Tele Taxis did not respond to our questions. Police Scotland referred our enquiries to the local authority.

Scottish Government guidance

The Scottish Government states the weight attached to convictions when considering taxi applicants is determined by individual councils. The official guidance says: “In considering an individual’s criminal record, local licensing authorities will want to consider each case on its own merits but they will doubtless take a particularly cautious view of any offences involving violence and especially sexual in nature.”

It is incumbent on the applicant to divulge any convictions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

_________________
IDFIMH

an excellent question and one that many a Scottish council should be asked

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Who knew?

Ironically, more than 20 years ago I must have had literally dozens of letters about taxi licensing stuff published in the Evening Telegraph.

A couple of decades later, what has changed? Not a lot

politicians don't listen to ordinary people if there isn't a nice big check attached nothing happens

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Because the council didn't, who knows still don't, give a flying f***.

_________________
IDFIMH