WEST YORKSHIRE

Taxi driver Mohammad Gafoor, 33, was helping a woman to fill up a petrol can at a pump when the crook slid in down the passenger side of the car and stole his silver Toyota Avensis, while Mr Gafoor's back was turned.

Alongside with the car the crook took Mr Gafoor's mobile phone, debit card, his wife's debit card and a float of £50.

The thief struck at around 1.30pm on Sunday.

Mr Gafoor said: "This was the first time anything like this has ever happened to me.

"I was shocked. I could not believe it was happening. I'm waiting for answers now.

"I'm off work and losing out. I don't know when I will be back at work.

"It was quite brazen. It happened in a few seconds. It makes it even more shocking that it happened on a petrol forecourt and it was in broad daylight."

http://goo.gl/BpgYNT
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 STOKE

 TAXI drivers are calling for greater protection – after seeing their cabs repeatedly pelted with bricks and stones across Stoke-on-Trent.

New figures reveal around 100 incidents have been recorded in the city in the last 12 months with many cabbies being left hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

And some streets have become so bad it is feared they may have to be blacklisted as no-go areas.

Now Stoke-on-Trent Private Hire Drivers' Association is calling on the police to do more to investigate the senseless attacks.

Cabbie Khalid Gulzar has been targeted twice in just four months, once in Bentilee and then at Eaton Park.

The 43-year-old, of Normacot, said: "Out of nowhere a brick hit my windscreen and smashed it. I just pulled over and called the police and checked my passengers were okay.

"I have lost around £220 with my car being off the road."

Most of the bricks were thrown at cabs on the move in hotspot areas including Bentilee, Meir, Chell Heath and Smallthorne but some vehicles were targeted while parked outside their owner's home.

http://goo.gl/TKHwZ3
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STOKE

 A taxi firm worker who raped a woman after a boozy party has failed to convince top judges that he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Ikechukwu Felix Enueze, 38, insisted the victim, who had drunk alcohol and smoked cannabis, was a "willing participant" in a late night sexual tryst with him.

But the jury disbelieved him and Enueze, of Birch Street, Hanley, Stoke on Trent, was convicted of rape at the city's Crown Court.

He was put behind bars for seven-and-a-half years in September last year.

But judges at London's Criminal Appeal Court heard him argue that he was wrongly convicted.

Enueze claimed to have startling new evidence to put before the court that would clear his name.

He said that another woman had come forward, claiming to have received text messages from the victim in which she admitted that he had not raped her.

These texts were said to have been deleted by the witness at the request of the victim.

But a written message to the court - supposedly from the witness - promised that she would give oral evidence about the contents of the deleted texts from memory.

But Mrs Justice Andrews said that the court had serious doubts about the validity of this "so-called fresh evidence" from the "female witness".

The woman's message "appeared to be written in the same handwriting as the appellant's note to the court," she observed.

The judge, sitting with Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, said there was "no reason" why the witness could not have given evidence before the trial jury.

"We are extremely sceptical that this is the evidence that this witness, were she called, would have given," added the appeal judge

"This application for leave to appeal against conviction is refused."

http://goo.gl/CtjDsd
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USA


General Motors and Lyft want prototype autonomous taxis on the road by the end of the year, a preliminary step for the ride-sharing company in swapping human drivers with a machine.

GM has spent $1.5 billion on the program so far – $500 million as the lead investor in Lyft’s funding round and $1 billion to acquire San Francisco-based Cruise Automation, which provides the self-driving system that will be installed inside prototype cars.

Lyft will trial the program in an unknown city and use GM cars to test the autonomous features, according to WSJ. Customers will be able to opt-in or out of the program from the mobile app.

It will be the first autonomous test that uses the public as testers, which may alarm regulators that don’t currently condone public use of driverless vehicles. Google, Uber, and Tesla have all run trials in California, Pittsburgh and Michigan, but always in a controlled environment with members of the press and the public.

Uber has already poached key executives from Ford and Google’s self-driving team, showing it places a big emphasis on autonomous cars for the future of its service. Lyft came a little late to the party, but the deal with GM makes it a key player in the rise of automotive automation, and makes the rivalry between Uber even more tenacious.

GM isn’t just looking at the self-driving side of the deal, it wants Lyft drivers to lease or purchase cars through a program set up in Chicago, which will expand to more cities later this year. The Chevrolet Equinox is the car currently available for drivers, though GM is expected to add the Bolt to the list of choices to get more electric cars on the road.

A few traditional carmakers are starting to partner with a tech company, almost as a security for the automotive future. Fiat Chrysler recently announced a partnership to provide Google more autonomous cars.

Tesla and Uber are still lone warriors in the battle, though the latter is a partner of Baidu, who has its own self-driving car. Tesla has shown no signs of wanting to enter the taxi market, so it might become a partner for a new ride hailing app in the future.

http://goo.gl/pghn2m
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AUSTRALIA


Queensland's taxi industry is building a million-dollar war chest to fight Uber and other "illegal taxi services" and win favour in a critical government review.

Taxi Council Queensland members unanimously voted to raise $360 per cab per year for the next three years in an effort to boost its lobbying powers, Fairfax Media can reveal.

If the owners of all 3260 of the state's cab owners pay up, that's almost $1.2 million a year, a huge sum but peanuts compared to the multinational's $50 billion valuation.

Taxi owners are terrified of Uber's surging popularity in the Sunshine state, which is believed to have contributed to a significant drop in taxi licence values, which were worth more than half a million dollars in 2014.

Brisbane's average taxi licence price was publicly available until last year but has not been released for 2015.

Long-term driver Mark Berry, 59, told Fairfax Media he finally sold his licence for $300,000 in April after a series of higher valued sales fell over, shattering his retirement plans.

"I would have been a fully self-funded retiree with health care," he said.

"I didn't even know what a pension was until 12 months ago.

"Now when I turn 66 and a half, I'll be on a full pension for four years until my wife catches up and then we'll be on a part pension the rest of our lives.

"And there'll be thousands of blokes like me."

At least one potential competitor warned the taxi industry's monopoly on private transport could be replaced by one held by Uber thanks to the Queensland government's delay in regulating.

The cab industry in Queensland has been fighting Uber every step of the way since its launch in Brisbane in early 2014, with lobbying and a long-running scare campaign on safety.

According to a letter from TCQ president Max McBride sent to members in April, an extraordinary general meeting held on November 11 last year voted unanimously to raise the $360 levy.

"With each licence owner suffering a substantial paper loss as a result of the devaluation in licenses that is occurring, none of us can afford to not give our all in this fight," Mr McBride wrote.

"That means that TCQ needs to be adequately funded to give ourselves the best chance of protecting our businesses and the Queensland community from the denigration that ride share will cause to service levels."

Uber argues it offers lower prices, better journey monitoring and easier booking as well as providing a safe transport option and choice for both riders and passengers.

Mr McBride's letter laid out a three-part plan in the industry's battle with the US company and other ride-share operators, which are yet to launch in Queensland.

First priority, Mr McBride wrote, was the upcoming Opportunities for Personalised Transport Review, which is expected to decide the fate of ride-share in Queensland in July, the "most important the taxi industry has faced in a generation", according to COO Wayne Crookes.

Mr McBride hailed the success of the Katter's Australian Party's recent bill, which tightened up the definition of an illegal taxi, increased fines and boosted transport officers' enforcement, enabling a recent crackdown that netted $128,000 in fines.

But Mr McBride warned it was only a "small battle", with a favourable outcome in the review the real goal.

To that end TCQ engaged economists, PR experts, legal advisers, political strategists and more to help push its case.

"TCQ is throwing everything we have at this fight and no matter what the outcome we will not stop until we have won," Mr McBride wrote.

"In terms of other Australian jurisdictions it is possible that this fight may go on for many years. "However to win they must first believe they can win.

"If they can come together and fight with a common goal in mind, as we are doing in Queensland, then I have no doubt that they will win in their jurisdictions."

http://goo.gl/GLymdk
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EIRE


I'll drive taxi again if they let me, says sex attack cab driver

A taxi driver who admitted to sexually assaulting a female passenger has apologised to his victim.

In what the judge described as the "ultimate nightmare scenario" for an unaccompanied woman in a taxi, he was found guilty of repeatedly touching her thigh.

Matti said that he was very sorry for what had happened. "I didn't mean anything," he said.
"She said I touched her leg, I swear to God, I have a family of four kids, I have a wife and this is my livelihood. Why would I do something to jeopardise my life?

"I swear to God, I didn't mean anything," he said.
Matti said he would drive his taxi in future, if given the chance. However, current legislation will not allow this.

"This is my livelihood. I'm extremely sorry, I'm very sorry," he said. "She said I touched her about 10 times, each time about two seconds. I don't remember doing such, but it's her word against mine," he added.
"If I fought the case and if I had lost, I go to jail. I don't want to go to jail," he said.

In court, Matti pleaded guilty to sexual assaulting the woman on November 1, 2014. A garda told Blanchardstown District Court the victim had taken the taxi from Harcourt Street in the early hours of the morning. She was sitting in the front passenger seat.
Touched

"On the way out, the driver touched her on the leg on a number of occasions, that is the crux of it really," the garda said.
Matti - from Huntstown Lawn, Clonsilla - had no previous convictions of any kind. A victim impact statement was presented to the court. Reading this, the judge said it was a "very fair report" and the garda said he had agreed that the victim was a "very genuine young lady".

"Her motivation was totally unselfish in reporting the matter," Judge McHugh said. "She just didn't want it to happen to somebody else."

Matti, originally from Nigeria, has lived in Ireland for 15 years and had worked as a taxi driver for six years. He was ordered to pay €1,100, which he had brought to court, as a token of remorse to be given to the victim either to keep or donate to charity.

http://goo.gl/VGZHgJ