Duffy's does U-turn on driver accused of propositioning rider
Taxicab Board investigation 'active and ongoing'; driver not yet cleared of 'wrongdoing'
A Duffy's Taxi driver has been pulled off the job — again — over allegations he propositioned a passenger for sex.
The company has admitted they incorrectly told media that the driver had been cleared of wrongdoing, but that wasn't the case.
On Monday afternoon, a spokesperson from Duffy's blamed the slip-up on poor communication between the company and Taxicab Board, which regulates the industry.
"Due to a miscommunication between Duffy's Taxi and the Taxicab Board, we erroneously informed you that the [Taxicab Board] had concluded their investigation," the Duffy's spokesperson said.
"The [Taxicab Board] is continuing their investigation and the driver under investigation has had his suspension reinstated."
Earlier in the day, Duffy's general manager Ram Valluru provided CBC News with a statement saying "The [Taxicab Board's] investigation into this incident has found no wrongdoing and therefore the driver's suspension has been lifted."
But when CBC News spoke with the Taxicab Board, they said that the investigation is "active and ongoing" and Valluru's statement was inaccurate.
"If our investigation is active and ongoing, there's no conclusion right now, so it's inaccurate to say that there is no wrongdoing," a spokesperson with the Taxicab Board said, adding she doesn't know where Duffy's received its information. "I would like to know myself where they got that from."
'Make some extra money'
Earlier this month, Patricia Nosal told CBC News she was alarmed when a male Duffy's driver asked her if she wanted "to make some extra money."
She caught a cab at about 3:30 a.m. in downtown Winnipeg on Nov. 6 after a night out with friends and asked the driver to take her home to the West End.
Nosal said after rejecting the proposition, which she was convinced was an offer of money for sex, she told the driver to take her home. But when she arrived, a second Duffy's cab was parked outside her home, Nosal said.
The passenger from that vehicle was standing outside and asked her the same question, she said: "He said, 'I hear you would like to make some money?'"
Nosal was shaken by the experience and reported the incident to police.
Taxi board investigation
A Duffy's spokesperson initially told Nosal in a statement that both drivers involved in her case maintained it was all a misunderstanding.
"What they've told me is that the driver who was waiting at your destination had a family emergency that required him to return home and could not complete the trip he was currently on. That driver called the driver of the taxi you were in and asked if they could meet at the end of his current fare to exchange the passenger," says the statement from Duffy's to Nosal, made in early November.
On Nov. 8, Valluru told CBC News the two drivers involved in Nosal's case were suspended pending a review by the Taxicab Board. A Duffy's spokesperson said Monday the company passed the investigation over to Taxicab Board officials, who determined Nosal's driver did nothing wrong, although later Monday the Taxicab Board said that's not the case.
Randy Williams, chair of the board, previously said there are more than 2,000 cab drivers in the city.
As of November, Williams said the board knows of at least 270 complaints made this year alone that range from accusations of drivers speeding to items forgotten in cabs and sexual assault.
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With files from Austin Grabish and Aidan Geary