Warning for anyone getting into a Taxi alone in Sheffield

For the sake of people's safety, I feel that I should pass this tale on to anyone thinking of getting into a black cab on their own in the city centre this weekend.

Last Friday night the wife of one of my oldest mates was out on a work night out and at the end of the evening she hailed a black cab and asked the driver to take her to the address in Hilsborough where she and her husband are currently living.

When the taxi arrived in Hilsborough, the driver announced that the fare was £17.50 and asked for the money. My friend's wife saw that the meter was reading about £10.00 and she told him this as well as pointing out that she didn't have more than a tenner anyway.

The driver responded to this by refusing to let her out of the taxi and drove off back towards the centre of town with her in the back seat. He refused to tell her where he was going and she felt that she had no other option but to call the police as she was effectively being kidnapped by the driver.

Eventually he dumped her off in Shalesmoor, as far as we have been able to tell (as my friend's wife is not native to Sheffield) somewhere near the import place that sells furniture where the police found her and drove her back home.

Unfortunately she did not manage to get any of the drivers details, but please be aware that this guy is most probably still driving around in his cab as I type this.

Be careful and if you're getting in a cab alone do something like texting the drivers number plate or registration number to a mate.

My friends wife had a lucky escape.

Lot of unlicensed drivers about now.

she should have got out and said ill pay you through the window and then just walk/run off

Lot of unlicensed drivers about now.

The scary thing is that this was a black cab and the meter clearly stated the fare as a tenner.

If the guy had even driven to a police station to get the dispute settled (as I have been told some drivers do) it would have been better than pretty much abducting a woman and then dumping her in a part of town that as far as I know she's never even driven through!

she should have got out and said ill pay you through the window and then just walk/run off

In hindsight that might have worked; but I think that most people would just have pointed out the discrepancy in the fare and not expected to be treated is such a disturbing manner.

That's a really scary story Carmine- I'm really glad to hear that she's physically OK, but after all of the scare stories about private hire companies and the like, black cabs are supposed to be the safe alternative.

Texting the licence plate to someone wouldn't necessarily keep someone safe, but it could help the police catch whoever's doing this.

Anybody got any sensible ideas on how people can protect themselves?

Thats really worrying.

I've always thought that the facility for the cabbie to lock the passenger in was a bit dodgy, now I'm even more worried about it.

Texting the licence plate to someone wouldn't necessarily keep someone safe, but it could help the police catch whoever's doing this.

I agree, but there's really no way to be 100% safe when using a cab.

Thanks for the sympathy, she's ok now and hopefully she won't have to go through that again in future.

Thats really worrying.

I've always thought that the facility for the cabbie to lock the passenger in was a bit dodgy, now I'm even more worried about it.

It's a bit like getting those phonecalls when people hang up and 1471 tells you they withheld their number...makes me scared to leave the house empty sometimes.

I'm not trying to sow paranoia, just to highlight what happened to a friend in the hope that it might be less likely to happen in future to someone else in a similar situation.

Slightly differant tale but my girlfiend and her mate was in a taxi to Crystal Peaks from town last night and the driver was very weird. Taking wrong turns despite being told where to go and shaking at the wheel, my gf suspected he was having "hand activities" whilst driving