Sex offenders 'driving minicabs'

Drivers will have to pay £200 every three years for the licence

A number of sex offenders have been discovered working as minicab drivers in London.

Police checked a total of 43,000 drivers and discovered 20 sex offenders, including one convicted of offences against children.

The operation was in preparation for the introduction next month of new licences and identity cards for minicab drivers.

In the future all drivers will have to be licensed in an attempt to make London's minicabs safer and weed out the illegal touts who might be dangerous.

Two illegal minicab drivers have been jailed for rape in recent months.

In March an Old Bailey judge said "nobody can travel with any safety in a minicab" in London after an Afghan refugee cab driver was sentenced to eight years in jail for raping a woman passenger.

The industry (has been given) a bad name and it's understandable it's going to be a long time before we can win the confidence of the public Richard Aldridge, minicab driver

Assadullah Razaq, 31, had bought a false driving licence in someone else's name and had no insurance.

Last October Mohammed Akhtar, 28, was jailed for nine years for raping two of his passengers.

He had posed as a cab driver outside pubs and clubs in order to get women into his car.

Ed Thompson, from Transport for London (TfL), who is issuing the licences, said: "We've done our best to use all the modern printing techniques to make sure these licences are forge proof.

"They have a hologram and the holders have Braille so blind people can check."

West One Cars, a minicab firm which has been in business for more than 30 years, told BBC London it welcomed TfL's licensing plans.

"If anyone has got a criminal record they will be weeded out," said West One's Am Pall.

"We've gone 30 years plus in our industry trying to weed out these people, and now we've come to the final stage."

Poster campaign

Drivers will have to pay £200 every three years for the licences but they still support the scheme.

Richard Aldridge of West One Cars said: "There has been a lot of bad publicity for drivers, there have been some terrible rapes and even killings.

"It's given the industry a bad name and it's understandable it's going to be a long time before we can win the confidence of the public."

Police figures show 214 women were raped or sexually assaulted by illegal drivers in London over the 12 months until October last year.

The Metropolitan Police and the Mayor of London are running a poster campaign with the slogan 'Know what you're getting into?'