CCTV - YOUR SECURITY
CCTV SAVED THE DAY FOR BRIGHTON UBER DRIVER WHO WAS THE VICTIM OF A FALSE SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIM
A father has spoken of his ordeal after being falsely accused of sexual assault by a passenger in his Uber. According to The Argus, a review of CCTV inside his car found driver Islam Rushdi, 39, was the victim of a false accusation. “I think they should be punished for mak- ing this false complaint,” said Mr Rushdi, who lives in Hove and has three children. “This is one of the most serious allegations you can make about someone, next to murder and rape. It could have changed my life, it could have led to suicide. “I feel I’m very lucky because my CCTV was working.” The female passenger was taken from university halls of residence in Lewes Road, Brighton, to a shop in Richmond Parade on July 31. She returned from shop, got back into the vehicle and was taken back to the accommodation. Mr Rushdi was later told by Uber she had claimed he had touched her leg after locking the car doors. This claim was passed on to the licensing team at Brighton and Hove City Council, which reviewed footage inside the car. A licensing enforcement officer then emailed Uber saying that he could “confirm that the allegation is false and probably just made to get a refund of the fare paid”.
He said Mr Rushdi should be reinstated as soon as possible and the permanent record of the complaint should be expunged from his driver record. Uber did not reactivate his account until August 27, nearly a month after the false allegation was made. Mr Rushdi said he was “denied an income” during this time and was struggling to keep up with specialist vehicle financing and insurance. “If I had no CCTV in my car, I would have been done,” said Mr Rushdi. “My car is on finance, I rent the house, I have three children, bills and loans to pay. “It’s not fair at all that if someone complains that your account will be
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blocked without an investigation. “The council reviewed the CCTV within three days, but they blocked my account for a month.” Uber was contacted for comment. Brighton and Hove City Council said: “We always investigate serious allega- tions against local taxi drivers as quickly as possible. Taxis have CCTV installed in them these days. We were able to review the footage very quickly and respond to the company that contacted us. In this instance we did not consider it appropriate to notify the police.” The App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) said: “Too often private hire drivers are victims of false and vexatious allegations from customers seeking an easy refund. False allegations of a sexual nature can destroy lives, drive people to ill health and in some cases can lead to suicide. “Uber management openly admits that while they know passengers make up false allegations to secure a dishonest refund which Uber deducts from driver’s wages, they nevertheless err on the side of believing the passenger. “Brighton and Hove Council must now step in and review Uber’s security procedures in partnership with trade unions to ensure passengers and licensed drivers are properly protected.” PHTM and NPHTA comment: We’ve been running campaigns on this sub- ject for many years, this type of false allegation is a very real risk for every single driver.
For far too long, drivers have been subjected to such mindless acts of greed and stupidity, all for the sole purpose of an electronic runner, which under the new app systems, costs the drivers much more money than an actual runner would have done. In far too many cases, without CCTV the drivers have no defence at all, as we have seen far too often, based on nothing more than an allegation, the driver’s home life, family life, reputation, and freedom are all ruined simply due to lack of defence, all for a few quid. Without CCTV, drivers are in a very vulnerable position, with nothing to defend them, it is very much a case of your word against theirs, which when working on a civil law basis, (balance of probabilities), never ends well, operators are duty bound to protect and investigate; as are councils, no union or association can demand that such allegations are ignored. In this particular case, the driver had CCTV, the council reviewed the footage, which vindicated the driver, as such, the app provider should have responded accordingly and reactivated the account, but they took too long. We’ve all seen such incidents reported, some like this, the biggest question is, how many of those reports do not make it to press, so we don’t get to see? Manchester driver jailed for six years for allegedly forcing a passenger to “receive oral sex”
...how whilst driving? Driver from Burnley accused of sexual assault on a male? Accrington driver saved by the GPS. Very rarely do we see reports of “college student jailed for making false allegation (2017) or “woman jailed for falsely accusing driver of attempted rape at knife point” (Notts 2013). CCTV not only protects against this type of report, it also provides evidence in the event of attacks and runners. Now is the time to get protected and get cameras installed in your vehicle.
OCTOBER 2021
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