A number of private hire cars and hackney taxis in Derby have been targeted by mindless crooks, forcing drivers off the road, left to deal with hefty repair bills.
CCTV
Two of the incidents happened in the early hours of Sunday the 4th of September morning in the small village of Littleover in Derby. The victims’ home CCTV shows the same man cycling up to the cars, smashing the driver window, reaching inside and fleeing the scene with money bags.
A driver for Albatross Cars, Jamal Rashid, had his Mercedes E-Class vandalised and robbed of just £20. He said: “They’ve only taken a bag which had about £20 worth of change in it. But now I can’t work because I need to order parts from Mercedes in Germany to fix the damage.”
The drivers will suffer a substantial loss of earnings while their taxis are off the road. Mr Rashid continued: “The car will be off the road for the next three to five days and, including insurance, that’s going to cost me at least £400 to £500.”
“We can’t stay up all night guarding our cars and we just don’t know who’s going to be next.”
Who’s Next?
The drivers are now fearful of who will be targeted next. Mr Rashid said: “There’s some really upset people in the village. We can’t stay up all night guarding our cars and we just don’t know who’s going to be next.”
Mr Rashid’s dad, Uman, added: “We’re trying to make an honest living but then someone does something like this. It has cost us £500 for the sake of about 20 quid.”
“We would urge taxi drivers to take all their valuables in once they’ve pulled up.”
Prime Targets
A police spokeswoman said that drivers should be careful not to leave valuables in their cars. She said: “It looks like this is someone who has knowledge of the fact that some taxi drivers leave cash and mobiles in their cars. We would urge taxi drivers to take all their valuables in once they’ve pulled up.”
Anyone with information on these incidents should call PC Stevie-Dee Carter on 101.