Northern Ireland taxi firm fonaCAB 'aware' of video showing driver 'threatening passenger with gun'

Still from dashcam footage appearing to show driver threaten passenger with gun. Pic social media.
The taxi firm said it is 'aware of dashcam footage of an incident involving' one of its drivers being shared on social media.

Taxi firm, fonaCAB, has said it is aware of dashcam footage of an incident involving one of its drivers circulating online appearing to show him threaten a passenger with a gun.

The company said it was working with police.

It said when it first was alerted to the footage, and before it was circulated online, the driver's "relationship with fonaCAB was immediately terminated".

Police are investigating.

The footage emerged on social media on Thursday.

It shows the driver repeatedly threaten his passenger with what appears to be a gun while another man sits in a back seat watching.

The driver threatens to 'take his legs' if he does not pay off a debt. At one point the man is hit with the gun in the face.

FonaCAB said it was made aware of the footage at around 11.30pm on Wednesday, 31 May.

"The driver was identified and called this morning to present at the earliest opportunity / ASAP to fonaCAB Head Office, at which time he was interviewed and his relationship with fonaCAB immediately terminated," a company statement said.

"FonaCAB has been liaising with the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA) Northern Ireland and the PSNI, and any further action will be determined by them. Our investigation was completed and our action taken before the footage was released on social media.

"Due to the nature of the content of the footage, it would be inappropriate to make any further comment on the footage while other investigations are undertaken."

It's statement continued: "We will however state that any action which affects the safety of our passengers, staff and drivers is never acceptable and should any infringement occur will be dealt with immediately by fonaCAB and referred to the appropriate authorities.

"Drivers at fonaCAB complete the same training and vetting as all taxi drivers in Northern Ireland and in addition we expect them to maintain the high standards that we hold ourselves to.

"We average 100,000 bookings per week, and we do everything we can to ensure that each of those customers is given the same high level of professional service. We do not tolerate incidents like this where safety is compromised, standards are not upheld, or the company and our drivers are called into disrepute."

Police are investigating and have appealed for information.

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