Uber ‘putting reputation over public safety’

Uber has been accused by police of allowing a driver who sexually assaulted a passenger to strike again by not reporting the attack, along with other serious crimes.

In a strongly worded letter, Inspector Neil Billany of the Metropolitan Police’s taxi and private hire team suggested the company was putting concerns for its reputation over public safety.

He cited the case of a man who worked for Uber being allowed to stay on the books despite an allegation of sexual assault, leading to another attack on a woman in his car. “Had Uber notified police after the first offence it would be right to assume that the second would have been prevented,” the inspector wrote in his letter to Helen Chapman, head of taxis and private hire at Transport for London.