Sexual favours in exchange for taxi fares 'common'
A taxi driver acquitted of raping a drunk, female passenger yesterday, claims taxi drivers are routinely offered oral sex and other sexual favours as payment for fares.
Prabhjit Singh Gill said the offers were commonly made and he knew of dozens of drivers who had accepted the sexual favour which were then talked about openly while drivers waited at taxi ranks.
"It's normal, like you drive you pick up a girl and they have no money they offer you blow job straight away," he said.
Mr Gill made the comments during an interview following the rape trial that had seen him and fellow taxi driver Amrit Pal Singh accused of raping a young married woman as she made her way from a boozy hen’s night last year. The trial heard that the woman had paid her fare at the end of the night by EFTPOS.
The jury rejected Singh’s claim that the woman had not been too drunk to consent to the sex, but cleared Mr Gill of a similar charge after he testified that he had only seen the pair having sex and had no sexual contact with the woman himself.
Today in his lawyer Terry Dobson’s office, with his wife by his side, he said the only mistake he had made had been to go to the carpark to deliver drinks that night.
The Department of Transport has said Mr Gill will no longer be able to work as a taxi driver because he was not deemed of fit character on the back of the rape case.
Mr Gill said he didn’t ever want to work as a taxi driver again because he feared women could make false allegations. Mr Gill said he had never taken up any of the offers of sexual favours.
He said it was common that women offered sexual favours instead of payment for fares and that he believed the taxi council was aware of the issue.
He claimed he knew of one driver having sex with a female passenger and her husband.
"Sometimes on the taxi rank we talk, everybody. There was one driver - he had sex with the husband and a wife together.
"I can not report anybody's name but I know ... I think I know fifty, sixty drivers (who have taken it up)," he said.
Sexual contact between drivers and passengers is in breach of the taxi driver’s code of conduct.
This morning the Department of Transport managing director of transport services Nina Lyhne said Mr Gill would not be able to work as a taxi driver again.
She said it was unfortunate that a minority of drivers that carried out criminal offences could be seen as tarnishing the industry.
Ms Lyhne said female passengers had a right to feel safe in taxis and that systems were in place for offenders to be dealt with.
Ms Lyhne said any allegation of a taxi driver breaching the code of conduct would be fully investigated.
"While the Department carries out its own surveillance and compliance inspections, we also rely on members of the public, the taxi companies and people within the taxi industry to tell us when there has been a breach of the code of conduct, and to report criminal activity to the police" Ms Lyhne said.
"If Mr Gill has evidence of misconduct then he should come forward."
Taxi Council of WA CEO Olwyn Williams said it was illegal for drivers to have sex in a taxi.
"The Taxi Driver Code of Conduct clearly classifies that 'engaging in any type of sexual behaviour in the presence of passengers is inappropriate behaviour'," she said.
"The Department of Transport has the autonomy to issue licenses and take them away. Evidence must be conveyed to the department for them to take immediate action."
Ms Lyhne and Mr Gill both rejected suggestions that there was any cultural issue behind such offences.
