Blind woman and guide dog left on the curb after taxi driver refuses to take them

A disability rights campaigner has described her frustration after a taxi driver drove off without her once he spotted her guide dog.

Deborah Persaud, the chair of a disabled campaign group Transport for All, was left the side of the road in Dalston, east London, with her guide dog Betty and heavy bags after taxi driver Rahim Eren refused to take her.

Ms Persaud, who also works as a civil servant, had pre-booked a taxi with the company ComCab, which is owned by Addison Lee, to take her to a friend’s 50th birthday party in Kings Cross, central London, on August 10.

She said she booked it several days in advance with the company and notified them she had a guide dog and would need assistance.

But when Eren pulled up, he said he was ‘not taking the dog,’ citing an allergy. When Ms Persaud asked to see his exemption certificate, he just ‘sped off.’

She told Metro: ‘It’s not the first time it’s happened and I doubt it is the last, and that’s a real shame.  

‘One of the reasons I rely on this service is because I can tell them beforehand that I’m a disabled person and that I’m travelling with a guide dog so I get the support that I need to travel.

‘I told him that he needed to carry us and he refused.  

‘He was booked to provide a service and he refused, there wasn’t anything controversial or difficult about it.

‘The next thing is, how am I going to get there because I was literally left stranded on the curbside with my dog and my luggage.’

She eventually managed to get a different taxi with ComCab, but she ended up being an hour late to her friend’s party, which she had organised.

Ms Persaud described the ordeal and the way it was handled by the company as ‘disappointing’, adding that it highlights the issues disabled people face every day when it comes to transport in the city as it excludes them from ‘society and the economy.’

‘If you are relying on that service to get to work, how often are you going to arrive late, or how often are you going to arrive to work stressed because you had an awful journey as a result of a service provider not upholding their side of the contract or broken the law? These are the things we face every day,’ she said.

Ms Persaud added she is aware of other disabled people who have been in the same situation as her, including the BBC journalist Sean Dilley who has previously been refused entry into shops because of his guide dog.

‘It’s very frustrating and upsetting,’ she continued. ‘And it massively inconveniences us and puts us at greater expense as we need to find alternative ways to get there.  

‘It is exhausting having to keep doing this when we should really be able to turn up and travel.

‘Why is my time less valuable than everybody else’s?’ she added.

After she made a complaint to ComCab and Transport for London (TfL), the taxi driver was taken to court by TfL, who licence taxi firms in the city.

‘TfL has got a whole team of people who take on these prosecutions because it’s so rife,’ Ms Persaud said, adding that she was grateful TfL made sure ‘the law was upheld.’

However, she said the prosecution is just one of many and they were ‘just scratching the surface.’

Eren appeared at the City of London Magistrates Court on January 8 where he pleaded guilty to breaching the Equality Act by refusing to take a passenger accompanied by an assistance dog.

An Addison Lee spokesperson said: ‘We are committed to providing accessible services to anyone with a disability via our ComCab London black taxi service. When our customers order a ComCab London taxi through Taxicard, we check if there are any booking requirements, supporting customers to book the vehicle that will best meet their individual needs. 

‘In this case, these booking requirements were carried over when the job was passed onto Addison Lee. Regrettably, the driver who accepted the job did not see the detailed requirements prior to accepting the booking. He had not previously flagged any allergy, so we were unable to ensure an appropriate driver was utilised.

‘We are disappointed with the conduct of the driver and we sincerely apologise to Ms Persaud for this unfortunate incident.’

A TfL spokesperson said that ‘everyone has the right to travel around the capital without facing discrimination and we’d like thank Ms Persaud for reporting this wholly unacceptable incident to us.’

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