Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57 Million People

The Scandal Continues : Criminals Driving For Uber In Southend Revoked ... But In London It's Carry On Regardless

The scandal continues :

We've been told, via the media, that TfL knew there were 13,000 Uber drivers with fake DBS certificates back in January 2017.

We also know that TfL were informed around this time, about two Uber drivers working in Southend, who had lost their Southend licenses due to criminal conviction, were subsequently licensed by TfL. 

Southend council found two local cab drivers, who had previously been stripped of their licences, were using the Uber app to pick up passengers in the area. Nasser Hussain, 60, and Nisar Abbas, 37, had been found to be sharing penalty points for traffic offences with other drivers in order to avoid being banned.

Despite this, they were able to get new private hire licences from Transport for London and work using the Uber app in Southend, even though Uber doesn't have an operators’ licence there. 

Tony Cox, Southend council’s cabinet member for transport, said the legislative loophole left the local authority “impotent to protect the public”. But the public could be better protected if TfL did their job properly. 

Why Just Two Out Of 13,000?

The drivers criminal history was pointed out to TfL in February 2017 by a local Southend drivers association and their licenses were revoke.....but why just the two?

Were TfLTPH hoping this would satisfy media interest and sweep the rest of this scandal under the carpet ?

Mayor's question time 22nd of March 2017 : 

 Keith Prince AM asked the question:

Sadiq Khan answered: 

Why hasn't more been done about the other 13,000 ? 

Are TfL hoping this will all blow over ?

Why did Helen Chapman gamble with public safety ? 

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Uber Driver Accused Of Sex Assaults Loses Private Hire Licence

An Uber taxi driver accused of sexually assaulting two of his passengers in Leeds has lost an appeal to keep his private hire licence.

Naveed Iqbal and his brother were both Uber drivers, using the same VW people carrier to pick up fares

Leeds City Council claims Naveed Iqbal used his brother's Uber driver login while he was away and assaulted two women on separate occasions.

The city's crown court heard no charges had been brought, but a judge said it was him who carried out the attacks "on the balance of probabilities". 

He was told to pay £1,500 in fees.

Mr Iqbal, 39, shared a Volkswagen Sharan people carrier with his brother, also an Uber driver, and picked up fares at night while his sibling worked in the day.

The court heard two women were picked up in Leeds city centre after nights out in December 2015, with the women sitting in the front passenger seat on both occasions. 

Providing evidence via video-link, one woman said she fell asleep in the cab and woke up to find the driver of the vehicle fondling one of her breasts. 

'Technical fault' defence

Another told the court she was taken to a dark road near her home and the Volkswagen's driver "put his hands on my chest and under my clothes".

Leeds City Council found the Uber driver account logged in at the time of the assaults belonged to Mr Iqbal's brother, but he was in Pakistan at the time.

Mr Iqbal denied using his brother's Uber login and sexually assaulting the two women, blaming a "technical fault" on the phone or the Uber app. 

Leeds Crown Court heard two women were picked up in Leeds city centre after nights out in December 2015 and assaulted

Judge Simon Batiste told him the vehicle which picked the women up was "only ever used by two people" and one was out of the country.

Dismissing his appeal to retain his licence, he said: "We are satisfied that he is not a fit and proper person to hold a licence.

"He's extremely fortunate that criminal charges have not been brought against him."

Source : Reuters 

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What's More Important...Have A Working CC Unit, Or Having Genuine DBS Clearance???

Taxi and Private Hire Compliance Officers check for working card terminals when carrying out their on-street spot checks. 40,000 compliance checks carried out on London Taxis since 31 October 2016. Officers found a problem with the card machine on just 300 occasions.

TfL again have shown their total bias against London's Taxi Trade. A statement contained in an FOI response about CC acceptance. After receiving just  192 complaints of which only one third were upheld (that's just 64), says: 

“Each case is individually assessed and may result in the driver receiving a warning or suspension of their licence and/or the vehicle being issued with an ‘unfit’ notice’; this means that the vehicle cannot be used as a licensed taxi until it is shown to have an approved functioning."

Figures released in response to a Freedom of Information request suggest that the overwhelming number of drivers are in fact complying with the new rules.

But Helen Chapman's department have happily allowed 13,000 Uber drivers to carry on working knowing (since January 2017) that they did not have the proper approved enhanced criminal record checks. 

How many Taxi drivers have been thrown out of work for months while waiting for DBS checks when renewing their licences? 

Told by Helen Chapman "I couldn't live with myself should a cabby commit a crime while working without a comp,eyed DBS".

Her department gave the 13,000 drivers 28 days to reapply with authorised DBS certificates. It has been revealed that less than 20% of the 13,000 have actually reapplied and still Helen Chapman's department have taken no action to suspend the Uber drivers without genuine criminal record checks in place. She seems more concerned that Taxi drivers may be committing the heinous crime of working with a credit card reader which isn't functioning properly. 

And to that affect, TfLTPH are employing over 300 compliance officers to make sure Taxi drivers have working, authorised units supplied by (in the late deputy Mayor Dedring's own words) TfL Golden partners.

Since the 31st of October 2016, after 40,000 comp,Janice checks carried out on street, less than one percent have been found not to be working. Is this not a comp,eye waste of our licence fee???

While 40,000 compliance checks have been made on Taxis found standing in the street, hundreds of serious sexual assaults, including rapes, have taken place in private hire vehicles, many working without the correct DBS clearance. This is scandalous and must not be allowed to continue. 

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Open Letter To Deputy Mayor Val Shawcross In Regards To Uber DriverSexual Assault Figures.

Dear Deputy Mayor Shawcross

It has been bought to Taxi Leak's attention, that in reply to a letter sent to you by Jackie Doyle-Price MP in late 2016, you allegedly made an untrue statement which did grave damage and stopped the advancement to get her on board in a campaign for the safety of the public using private hire cars.

In your response to Jackie's letter, you stated that:

It should be noted that there are complaints of sexual assaults against Black Cab drivers as much as Private Hire.

At the time of writing this, you could not have known this to be true. 

TfL have now published statistics which confirmed that in the year in question (2016) there were no such sexual assaults from Black Cab drivers and that Uber drivers were responsible for more than half of the 164 reported sexual attacks. 

Uber are still spouting the lie that all their drivers have gone through the same enhanced DBS checks as Black Cab drivers. 

In January this year as I'm sure you know, 13,000 of Uber's drivers were found to have submitted inadequate DBS certificates. Unfortunately for many victims, TfL took the strange decision to say and do nothing, that is until an expose' appeared in the media. These 13,000 drivers were given 28 days by TfL to resubmit, but we've subsequently found out that only 2,642 have in fact resubmitted and as of today, TfL have sent out no suspension or revocation requests to drivers having failed to resubmit genuine DBS certificates.

Until this happens the public are unsafe in Uber vehicles.

The Mayor made a statement at the MQT held in City Hall, 16th November 2017. In answer to a question from assembly member Kurten, he said "any driver who hasn't reapplied should not be working.

It is felt that your statement to MPs scuppered a campaign that could possibly have resulted in many sexual attack victims being protected from having to go through a life shattering experience. 

It is my request that you issue a statement of apology to the victims of these heinous attacks, and also to the Licensed Taxi Trade, whose campaign was destroyed by your alleged comment.

I look forward to your reply. 

Regards James Thomas

Editor, Taxi Leaks

Licensed Taxi Driver, 44 years service. 

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TfL Accused Of Dumbing Down Sexual Assault Figures Posted On Website

Sexual offence figures from the Met police, compiled by Transport for London, show that the number of taxi and private hire journey-related sexual offences hit 164 in the capital last year. It was also pointed out that there were none reported in Taxi journeys.

The figures on the TfL website have been dumbed down (again) and are lower than the figures gained by FOI request and published earlier this year, which show higher totals. 

What TFL's figures actually show, is that over half of all offences were committed by Uber drivers.

Back in August, emails in the Sunday Times showed alleged offences include causing death by dangerous driving, careless driving, drink-driving, driving without insurance and speeding.

In the emails, which were written on July 7, Met Inspector  Neil Billany raised 'concerns with Uber as an operator. 

In a letter obtained by The Sunday Times, Inspector Billany, head of the Metropolitan police’s taxi and private hire unit, said he had “significant concern” that Uber seemed to be “deciding what crimes to report”, telling police only about “less serious matters” that would be “less damaging to [its] reputation”.

Billany accused Uber of “allowing situations to develop that clearly affect the safety and security of the public” by keeping from police crimes committed by drivers — including at least six sexual assaults on passengers, two public order offences and an assault.

In at least one of the sex cases, Uber continued to employ the driver, who went on to commit a more serious sex attack against a second woman passenger.

Billany said: “Had Uber notified police after the first offence, it would be right to assume the second would have been prevented.”

The victims complained to Uber and were left “strongly under the impression” it would tell police, but it did not do so, he added.

In the year to February 2017, Scotland Yard recorded 48 allegations of sexual assault involving Uber drivers, mostly reported by passengers but some made via the regulator, Transport for London (TfL).

Billany said Uber’s failure to report the public order cases meant the Met learnt too late to prosecute.

The letter — dated April 17 and sent to Helen Chapman, head of taxis and private hire at TfL — was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the chairwoman of the London Assembly’s transport committee, Caroline Pidgeon.

She said she was “deeply concerned”, adding: “This apparent cover-up of reports about such serious criminal activity is shameful.”

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Patience Has Run Out : Taxi Org Calls For Week-long London Shut Down InNew Year.

Mayor Khan Says Time's Run Out For The 13,000 UberDivers With Fake DBS. He Went On To Say "They Shouldn't Be Working". TfL Not Listening???

Mayor’s Question Time 16th November 2017.

TfL are again walking all over the Taxi trade. Legislation is in place to protect the public. If the Mayor and TfL consider uber to be unsafe, not fit to be an operator, then that legislation can and should be invoked.

But again, the weak Mayor, fronting for a weak TfL, in the face of weak representation from the Taxi trade engagement orgs have given uber a blank cheque to carry on being unsafe and not fit and proper. 

At MQT yesterday, question 4 came from assembly Member David Kurten asking the Mayor to clarify the situation in regards to Uber relicensing and the appeal process. 

The Mayor gave a wishy-washy scripted reply, then added they are seeking leave to appeal, followed by the appeal process itself, which could take a couple of years. 

According to Khan (under current legislation), Uber are legally allowed to continue to operate. 

If that is the case, then how did TfL manage to shut down Taxify ???

Assembly member Kurten’s went on to question (3:28 into the video) the scandalous situation of 13,000 Uber drivers, who were given 28 days to re-present genuine DBS certificates by TfLTPH. 

Sadiq Khan said "those drivers who haven’t now re-presented should not be working !!!"

There you have it HELEN CHAPMAN, from the mouth of the Mayor.....it’s now over to you at TfLTPH !!!

What are TfL planning to do, to ensure the 10,000+ who haven’t bothered to re-present aren’t working for Uber or any other operator ?

David Kurten then asked how many drivers, Uber actually had registered on their books.

It was clear that the Mayor didn’t know the answer to this question and could only point to the total given by Uber in recent press releases, so we are none the wiser.

Another issue that's been swept under TFL's carpet:

Why has there been a complete news blackout about the Exhibition Road Alleged Uber Driver. It's been leaked that the driver -arrested at the scene- was not the driver registered on the App. The driver had picked up two female passengers who have suddenly disappeared.

First reports from on the scene witnesses said the driver appeared to deliberately attack them....all information dried up within hours..... 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :

It seems patience has run out amongst the rank and file drivers who look towards their representative orgs and unions, only to find silence. 

We are now looking forward to a "Winter Of Discontent". 

In the statement below, the ITA have made their intentions crystal clear. 

NOTICE OF INTENT : From the ITA

In light of recent events and incongruous statements by Mayor #Khan and #TfL, we find no other option, but to call a series of week long disruptive protests in the New Year. 

5 different effective targets on separate days to close London. 

WATCH THIS SPACE.

See David Kurten’s questions to the Mayor in the video below 

    

Also, if you have the time, you can watch the whole MQT using this link below. Helpful if you're having trouble sleeping. 

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