Uber driver who threatened to kill passenger and sexually harassed female customer loses appeal

An Uber driver banned from running taxis has had appeals to get a private hire licence back rejected after a court heard he left passengers feeling terrified and sexually harassed.

Ahmed Salamin, 42, threatened to kill one woman and her children when she told him he had gone the wrong way, the Old Bailey heard.

He invited another woman to ‘come and stay at my place in Pakistan’ and even a hardened prison worker was left shocked by his graphic bad language.

But Salamin was so desperate to get back behind the wheel he appealed twice against his rejection for a private hire licence.

The Old Bailey heard Salamin has had multiple complaints made against him by passengers dating back to March 2016.

On March 7, 2016, woman claimed he drove dangerously and then left her stranded on the side of a busy dual carriageway.

Genevieve Moss, prosecuting, read the passenger’s complaint to the court.

She said: ‘My experience was horrific to say the least. I felt endangered and that my safety was compromised.

‘The driver did a dangerous U-turn on the Kew Bridge Road and we were beeped at by a number of cars. I felt very unsafe.

‘On the way toward Chiswick, we were clipped by a lorry due to his dangerous driving.

‘The lorry pulled over, as did Ahmed, and I stopped the journey as the lorry driver had called the police. As a result, I was left alone on the side of the dual carriageway.

‘The most upsetting aspect of the experience is just how unsafe the experience was due to Ahmed’s driving.’

Another allegation, in June 2016, a woman claimed she left Salamin’s car ‘feeling sexually harassed’ after he ‘over-complimented her throughout the journey.’

When Salamin ended the journey he allegedly said: ‘No, I’d like to spend a few more minutes with you.’

In May 2017, Salamin allegedly greeted a woman by shaking her hand before pulling her in to kiss it ‘six or seven times.’

This passenger claimed Salamin ‘said some inappropriate things and made me feel unsafe as a woman travelling alone.’

In June 2017, a woman made a complaint to Uber alleging that Salamin had ‘threatened to kill her and her children’ after an argument over a wrong turn.

Uber driver Salamin appealed twice against his rejection and was in Old Bailey for latest try

Other allegations included inviting a woman to Pakistan to stay ‘at his place’, drinking whilst driving, using a phone whilst driving and swearing obscenely.

One passenger, in September 2018, said: ‘As someone who works in a prison, I’m not someone to be offended by bad language but this made me feel unsafe…’

As a result of these complaints, Uber terminated Salamin’s account on 29 July 2020.

In Summer 2021, Transport for London refused Salamin’s application to renew his private hire vehicle license and in January of this year his application for a new license was also denied.

In April, Salamin appealed against this decision but was denied. He was appealing for a second time at the Old Bailey.

Salamin, denies all the allegations against him, claiming he does not remember the incidents or that his allegedly sexual comments had been ‘misinterpreted’.

When asked about the incident in June 2017, Salamin claimed it was he who made the complaint about the woman.

He told the court: ‘She asked me ‘Why have you come this way?’

‘I said ‘Can’t you see what’s going on?’

‘She said to me ‘You son of a bitch’ so I said: ‘I’m a son of a bitch?’

‘We had an argument…the lady jumped from the car, she opened the back door and she slammed the door into [a] bus.

‘I didn’t see she’d damaged the car at that moment.

‘I closed the door and she came back with policemen.’

After his Uber account was terminated, Salamin began working with Bolt but his account was soon closed when further complaints were made against him.

Rosa Bennathan, for Salamin, claimed is not her client’s bad behaviour which has led to his being in court today, but Uber’s policy of not properly investigating complaints due to the sheer number of customers.

Rejecting his appeal, Judge Alison Kay said: ‘In essence we are to place ourselves in TFL’s shoes [and] consider, having regard to TFL’s policy and the law generally, whether Mr Salamin is a fit and proper person to hold a license.

‘A number of allegations have been referred to and examined.

‘Some of them we regard as relatively trivial and possibly based on misunderstanding.

‘But there are others which give use greater cause for concern.

‘There is considerable concern in relation to taxi drivers as to the safety of those who travel with them.

‘There is one very serious allegation, related to an incident on 10 June 2017, [wherein] it has been said that Mr Salamin made a threat to kill a passenger and her children.

‘There’s nothing to suggest any support for that allegation, and such a serious allegation, if true and if thought to be true, would have been pursued by police.

‘If this was an isolated complaint, we would readily have said that it was not sufficient to render Mr Salamin not a fit and proper person.

‘However, this is not an isolated incident, there is a pattern of him behaving in an inappropriate manner.

‘Although he denies that he has ever done so.

‘The number of incidents are not explained away by him in a satisfactory manner.

‘We think it unlikely that such allegations have been made without foundation.

‘The suggestion is there’s always an incentive to make a complaint to get a refund but when one examines the content of what is said, they seem to ring true and to have the sort of detail one might expect if this were someone making a genuine rather than false complaint.

‘We are not satisfied on the appropriate test that Mr Salamin is a fit and proper person to hold a license and therefore we refuse the appeal.’

Salamin was also ordered to pay £500 in costs.

He asserted he would not have gone back to Uber, even if his appeal had been allowed.

He said: ‘My life, it’s upside down.

‘I forgive. Even this lady, if she didn’t damage my door, I [wouldn’t have pursued it].

‘I need to work, continue to work and that’s it.’

Salamin supports his wife and two children, 4 and 2, who live in Pakistan with his parents.

Since losing his license he has been unable to work, surviving on Universal Credit and dwindling savings.