S1: From the newsrooms of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
S1: This is the morning edition. I'm Samantha Salinger Morris. It's Tuesday,
S1: February 18th. Did the nation's biggest taxi company fail to
S1: stem the rampant rorting of passengers? Leaked documents to investigative
S1: journalist Nick McKenzie allege Australians are being ripped off by
S1: drivers at a massive scale. From everyday passengers going to
S1: and from work, to vulnerable people travelling from disability services
S1: and aged care homes. In one of the most shocking cases,
S1: a Cabcharge account belonging to an elderly person who had
S1: died was charged dozens and dozens of times over just
S1: a few days. Today, Nick McKenzie, on his joint investigation
S1: with The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 minutes.
S1: And what happened when they sent someone undercover to expose
S1: the scam. So, Nick, perhaps the simplest way to illustrate
S1: this investigation is for you to tell us what happened
S1: when you sent someone in undercover to hop in a
S1: cab and and go around Melbourne in it.
S2: Well, we knew a to be the largest Australian taxi
S2: company would say, listen, we have frauds and significant frauds
S2: been a problem in the past, but everything's okay now.
S2: And we knew that wasn't the case. So what better
S2: way to test that than to, uh, hit the hit
S2: the ground running with somebody in cabs using the product
S2: or one of their products we know is being exploited. Cabcharge.
S2: So we got, uh, an elderly, uh, looking person, a
S2: person who could pass off as an elderly looking person,
S2: gave them a walking frame, effectively sent them in undercover
S2: with some cab charges. It's lunchtime on a Thursday in Melbourne,
S2: and a vulnerable looking passenger approaches the taxi rank. It's
S2: hardly an unusual Is your situation?
S3: Are you free? Where are you going?
S2: But what these drivers don't know is this man is
S2: working undercover. The cab ride is just a few minutes.
S2: It should have cost no more than about $15. This
S2: driver takes the cab charge before they even get in
S2: the car, and immediately turns the meter off when they
S2: start driving. He's handed her a receipt for $54. So
S2: he thinks I'm undercover. And we think initially. Well, that's
S2: the extent of the fraud. 15 bucks to 54. It's
S2: a decent whack. Uh, turns out the receipt is fraudulent.
S2: The actual fraud we discover by looking at the channel
S2: nine cab charge account. He was charged about $330. So
S2: we're talking about a $315 add on to a $15, uh,
S2: cab ride. That's an extraordinary fraud right there in a
S2: single case study. So if you times that by many
S2: hundreds of incidents every day, that that starts to really
S2: add up in terms of aged care facilities who send
S2: elderly out. Elderly people out with cab charges. Disabled people
S2: from NDIS facilities have cab charges. Corporates giving their staff
S2: cab charges. If you extrapolate that across the industry, you've
S2: got a significant systemic fraud going on and we know
S2: it is systemic and we know it is happening across
S2: Australia in many of the cabs associated with AtsB that
S2: this big taxi company.
S1: And like you say, there, this isn't an issue of just,
S1: you know, a couple cabbies ripping a few people off.
S1: It is systemic. That's what your investigation has found so far.
S1: So tell us, I guess, the most shocking cases.
S2: Well, mostly the level of fraud is such that you
S2: can live with it. It might be 20, 30, 40 bucks.
S2: It also might be that your employer is the one
S2: that's defrauded because they're ultimately paying for the cab. So
S2: you cop it on the chin, you don't mind too much,
S2: and you move on. Where it gets really disgusting and
S2: shocking is where you've got disabled people, sometimes profoundly disabled people.
S2: They're massive users of Cabs through state government federal government
S2: subsidized schemes. So in some cases the NDIS is paying
S2: for cabs. And we found a number of cases, including
S2: one in Sydney, where many disabled people from a disability
S2: service provider were getting ripped off over and over and
S2: over again. Uh, we're talking hundreds, uh, if not several thousand.
S2: In one case of rip offs of six disabled people
S2: from one facility, including a person who was dead. So
S2: their cab charge should obviously not have been charged. Their
S2: cab charge or travel account should not have been charged
S2: after they had died. I mean, that much is blatantly obvious.
S2: They are not the only dead person who had their
S2: cab charge continuously used after their death. If that sort
S2: of thing is going on, uh, it just shows how
S2: deep the problems are.
S1: And can you tell us how this actually worked? Like
S1: how are clients being ripped off? How are all the
S1: different ways, I guess, that people were overcharged.
S2: There's a range of ways As this occurs. And I
S2: think this is part of the problem, the technology that
S2: this massive cab company A to B, which as we
S2: know owns one three cabs, owns Silver Service, owns cab
S2: Charge and provides the payment terminals and most of the
S2: cabs around the country. Uh, the way the payment systems
S2: work is slightly complicated, which creates lots of opportunities for
S2: those who wish to game the payment system. And the
S2: payment system is also wide open for exploitation. Let me
S2: give you one example. A cab driver can add what's
S2: known as an other charge. It appears in the tax
S2: in your taxi receipt as an other charge. Now this
S2: on the surface looks reasonable. Let's just say you get
S2: sick in a cab. Uh, big night on the on
S2: the beers and someone vomits. One might want to charge
S2: another charge to pay for a clean up fee. Uh,
S2: so there's reasonable times that a cabbie can add on
S2: an extra charge. But what's actually happening over many years
S2: is these other charges are being used to defraud customers.
S2: Some internal analysis League from A to B to us
S2: over hundreds of thousands of cab rides. Uh, there was, uh, many,
S2: many thousands of others added on the suspicious charges. Uh,
S2: the quantum of the fraud was up to $2.4 million
S2: over six months. So just looking at this one way
S2: of ripping off a customer, that just one way. There's
S2: there's a multitude of other ways, uh, you can rip
S2: off customers, be it by taking a digital or or
S2: hard copy Cabcharge, uh, stealing its, its details, uh, and
S2: using it to create false, false fares and charging it
S2: down the track hoping you won't get caught. Uh, defrauding
S2: credit cards through payment terminals. Uh, adding on generic locations.
S2: So rather than using the GPS that's attached to or
S2: built into the meter, you override the meter. What's known
S2: as a meter flash. Uh, and you use a technological
S2: flaw to change the pick up and drop off drop
S2: off destinations to allow you to increase or add additional
S2: fees on to defraud your customer. Now, when that's happening
S2: in an entrenched fashion, it's a small amount, but over
S2: many millions of rides, it really does add up.
S1: We'll be right back. You've also found a shocking case
S1: of one taxi driver who was working for one three cabs,
S1: who assaulted profoundly disabled passengers.
S2: In this case, we've had a taxi driver in Victoria
S2: working for one three cabs, which of course is owned
S2: by a to be the company at the center of
S2: this scandal, not only over hundreds of occasions stealing from
S2: disabled people through those gaping holes in the technology and
S2: systems that AtsB provides, but also manhandling them, whacking them, uh,
S2: prodding them, not securing these disabled passengers in his cab.
S2: So they had terrifying rides, uh, injuring them, really, to
S2: a hellish experience. When Liam gets into a taxi or
S2: an Uber. How vulnerable is he?
S4: He's 100% vulnerable because he cannot communicate in any way
S4: if he's being mistreated. Um, he if he's being abused
S4: or mistreated in any way, he cannot tell anyone he
S4: trusts what is what has happened to him. So he's, uh,
S4: a sitting duck. Really.
S2: And the most disturbing thing about this case is this
S2: driver was found by accident. Only because he was busted
S2: drink driving while on the job, fairing disabled passengers around.
S2: His misconduct in terms of physical abuse and defrauding his
S2: passengers is likely, according to the police, have gone on
S2: for much longer than the two weeks they discovered on
S2: the CCTV. Which in and of itself is shocking.
S4: He was treated like an animal. Our beloved Liam was
S4: treated like an animal. And I'll live with that for
S4: the rest of my life.
S2: It's a really powerful case study of how these systems
S2: should be in place to protect passengers. Especially vulnerable passengers
S2: are failing.
S1: I mean, it really is. You know, we heard further
S1: testimony from Liam's mother, Sandy, in your 60 minutes episode
S1: on this, and she said that she is still feeling
S1: trauma from when she thinks about what, you know, her
S1: son might have experienced at the hands of that cab driver.
S1: And you mentioned that this cab driver did face court.
S1: So what sentence did he receive?
S2: Well, the taxi driver got really the equivalent of a
S2: slap on the wrist of $20,000. Fine. He avoided a
S2: jail sentence with a two year community corrections order, was
S2: given a criminal conviction. That means he won't be driving again. Uh,
S2: but really significantly, the magistrate said the law needs to
S2: be changed to give the courts the option to send
S2: drivers to jail in cases such or similar to this,
S2: we need to make sure people are protected in cabs
S2: and Ubers, and the courts are saying, well, this is
S2: a real issue. This is not the level of protection
S2: that the community should expect. Uh, something needs to change.
S1: Okay. And so how exactly was it that all of
S1: this behavior was allowed to continue for so long, because
S1: you've identified in your investigation that there was actually warnings
S1: to senior management in Adobe as early as 2022. So
S1: what's happening there?
S2: Well, the warnings actually date, uh, much further back than that.
S2: And the systems, the compliance systems that HIV has aren't
S2: up to scratch. Why has it been allowed to happen?
S2: That's a complicated set of answers. Regulation is a hit
S2: and miss across the country. It's state regulation, state and
S2: territory regulation. Sometimes in some jurisdictions, it's okay. Other times
S2: it's very poor. Victoria is extraordinarily under resourced when it
S2: comes to regulating the Throughout in the industry, uh, New
S2: South Wales does better, but there's still significant problems. The
S2: laws are too weak. Some say. Well, regulation has never
S2: been the answer to the tax industry. We need the
S2: corporates to occupy this space, uh, to take charge, to
S2: take responsibility. But when it comes to ATV, we say
S2: that's not the case. So we've got a corporate responsibility
S2: and accountability out the door. It's another factor there. We've
S2: seen the impact of rideshare. Most noticeably Uber really changing
S2: up consumer habits, making it much tougher for cabbies to
S2: make a decent living as people have flocked to Uber.
S2: There's a whole multitude of problems that when you boil
S2: it right down, what we do know is a fact
S2: is that fraud is wide scale. It's happening relatively unchecked,
S2: and something has to change.
S1: And so just to wrap up, Nick, I mean, what
S1: happens from here, particularly with regards to the rorting of
S1: passengers like what will be done, if anything, to prevent
S1: it from happening?
S2: Well, unless there's accountability for misbehaviour. And that includes corporate accountability.
S2: So we're A to B has enabled fraud not done
S2: enough to get rid of it. It needs to be
S2: held to account. Let's think of the casinos or the
S2: banks that we had directors of casinos saying, well, we're
S2: not the money launderers, they're the ones coming in to
S2: use our facilities. It's not our fault that's going on.
S2: And we've seen now the corporate regulator, we've seen commissions
S2: of inquiry say no. As a casino, if your systems
S2: are being manipulated by wrongdoers, you are responsible. The same
S2: can be said of the taxi industry. We look to
S2: the corporate watchdog ASIC, we look to the consumer protection watchdog,
S2: the AUC. We look to the regulators that are meant
S2: to be doing a job. That's clearly not been a
S2: good enough job. There's a lot that can yet happen.
S2: You know, we've we've shown a big light on the problems.
S2: Now it's over to regulators, government and the industry itself
S2: to clean itself up.
S1: Well, thank you so much for your time.
S2: Thanks for having me.
S1: Today's episode of The Morning Edition was produced by Tammy
S1: Mills with technical assistance by Josh towers. Our executive producer
S1: is Tammy Mills. Tom McKendrick is our head of audio.
S1: The Morning Edition is a production of The Age and
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S1: every day. Links are in the show. Notes. I'm Samantha Selinger. Morris.
S1: This is the morning edition. Thanks for listening.