AN UBER driver has been slammed after allegedly taking advantage of a drunken passenger and taking her on a 40-mile-long detour around London.
The shocking incident which came to light earlier this month allegedly occurred after the driver noticed that his passenger had fallen asleep and opted to take a tour of the M25.
The woman had ordered the Uber to take her from central London to her home in East London knowing that the journey would usually cost around £25.
However, the passenger was left gobsmacked and reached out to Uber after seeing her receipt for the journey totalled £156.73 – more than six times the usual cost.
An image shows the map route of the driver beginning at the pick-up point in central London before indicating his joyride heading north on the M1 towards Barnet.
The driver, who is listed as a man named Amir, then turns onto Potters Bar and heads towards Epping in Essex before passing Brentwood and finally returning to the destination via Barking.
The journey was booked at 11:45pm with Amir arriving 14 minutes later at a minute to midnight ahead of the trip.
A post of the journey map was shared online last week with the caption: “My friend took a taxi from Soho to Limehouse after a night out.
“The taxi driver, seeing she was drunk and asleep in the back, decided to take a detour around the M25.
“She has reached out to Uber and they’ve defended this driver stating that there were roadworks so he had to take a detour.
“I’ve never heard of a detour requiring you to drive around the M25 to get from central London to zone 2.
“I’m worried there are drivers out there willing to take advantage of vulnerable females, it makes me feel disgusted that Uber would continue working with someone like this.
“How can I get them to take this more seriously?”
The post received over 56,000 likes with thousands of comments from concerned social media users who were quick to offer their views on the situation.
One said: “If I were her then I’d keep disputing it because that’s ridiculous.”
Another added: “Oh my god, he took her up to freaking Potters Bar, this is mental, he went around the entire bloody city.
“Please destroy them – this is unacceptable and absolutely disgusting, the ride should have been like £20.”
A third replied: “This happened to me, not as much but after dropping me off at home, the driver drove halfway across London and I got charged an extra £30ish quid.”
Another commented: “He practically kidnapped her.”
Uber has been contacted for comment.
