Honest taxi driver is a credit to your city

AS A tourist recently visiting Coventry for the first time, I wanted to share a wonderful experience I had during my long weekend in your city. On arrival at Coventry train station I hailed a cab and was driven to the Premier Inn in Earlsdon, where I found the driver to be very pleasant and helpful. However, later that evening as I was leaving to go to the theatre I realised I couldn’t find my handbag. The hotel manager gave me the numbers of several taxi companies, which I phoned, to no avail. I then contacted several credit/debit card companies to cancel my cards. I also accepted that I had lost at least £200. I felt that if the driver had found my handbag there was an outside chance that he would hand it in but it was pointed out to me that the next fare would probably find it and take it with them. On returning to the hotel several hours later, the receptionist handed me a piece of paper with my name and a phone number on it. A taxi driver had come to the hotel asking if I was a guest and obviously for data protection reasons, the hotel would not give out that information. The driver explained that he had found a handbag and had visited several hotels trying to track down the owner, as he has several drop-offs that evening and was not sure which hotel the owner of the bag was staying at. He had found my boarding pass for my return flight home to Belfast, which had my name on it.

One phone call later I was very relieved to discover that the taxi driver had my handbag in his possession. Twenty minutes later my handbag with all its contents was back in my possession and the taxi driver was apologising profusely for opening my handbag to try and track down my name or information about my whereabouts.

I wanted to take the time to write to you to commend this wonderful individual. On a busy Friday night he spent considerable time trying to find me, which obviously cost him fares. However his sense of honesty and decency far outweighed his own need to earn a wage.

It was such a wonderful act of kindness and words cannot express how grateful I am to Mr Major Singh. As a truly decent individual he expressed the belief that it is better to do the right thing.

May I say that the highlight of my long weekend in Coventry wasn’t the visit to your beautiful cathedral, shopping or indeed drinking or eating in several great restaurants, but meeting a wonderfully decent individual called Major Singh.

Coventry should be proud of having such a wonderful ambassador who is a credit to the Coventry Hackney organisation. Kate Law Belfast