Two taxi touts have been jailed for fooling foreign students into paying hundreds of pounds extra for cab rides.
Kenneth Grieveson and Frederick Gross worked as unlicensed
drivers at Heathrow airport.
They approached students as they arrived in England for the
first time, claiming to be their drivers.
Grieveson and Gross were found guilty of obtaining property
by deception and were sentenced to two years and 15 months in jail respectively.
Grieveson, 47, of Portsmouth, Hampshire, and Gross, 35, of
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, would charge the students huge sums before passing
them on to other unlicensed taxi drivers, who would take them to the language
schools where they were staying.
One 15-year-old Japanese girl was charged £340 for a cab
ride to Southampton, while another Japanese student was told to pay £240 for a
taxi ride to Golders Green, north London. Read more
After this incidence London Police said that it was a
shameful incident and they were alerted to the students and the tourists who
were coming in London at first time that they should be aware of licensed travelling agencies.
