Trio taken on nightmare journey in stolen taxi

THREE passengers “feared for their lives” after being picked up by a hooded thief driving a stolen taxi at speeds of up to 100mph.

The friends claim the driver later tried to run them over at an industrial estate leaving them fleeing for safety when he told them he had a gun.

The incident happened after the trio left Tree nightclub in Swindon at 3am on Saturday.

A Ford Allied Procab with taxi number 346 and registration SF18 ATV was stolen that evening.

A 21-year-old man from north Swindon, who wishes to remain anonymous, had been clubbing with two friends when they got into the taxi.

They only realised it was stolen the next day when news of its theft circulated on Facebook.

He then shared the details of his journey from hell and said: “We had been at Tree. We did order a taxi through the app, but we ended up taking a walk and found this taxi at the start of Wood Street so we got in.

“The driver was wearing latex black gloves, had a facemask on and had his hood up which we thought was weird but didn’t question too much.

“Almost immediately we were concerned because his driving was extremely erratic, he was swerving across the road and he must have been going at least 100mph at times.

“He was taking us in a weird direction and one of my friends was really suspicous so he started asking the driver to stop, who then pulled the handbrake. My friend then got out.

“At the time my other mate and I just wanted to get home so we were asking him to get back in the car but he was begging us to get out, saying ‘that’s not a real taxi driver’. In the end he dragged us both out.

“The driver started demanding money for the journey and we asked him to show us his ID but he kept saying he couldn’t take his mask off because of Covid.

“He then, out of the blue, tried to run us over, driving up onto the grass verge and he came so, so close to hitting my mate.”

The stolen taxi was recovered from the Walcot area of Swindon yesterday.

The suspect is described as Asian, aged in his 20s or 30s, and spoke with a local accent.