Bogus London minicab driver jailed for sexually assaulting two women

A sexual predator who posed as a minicab driver to carry out two sexual assaults has been sentenced.

Atila Ardic, 25, from Hackney, had pleaded guilty at Wood Green Crown Court on Wednesday 22 July to two sexual assaults. Today at the same court he was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Ardic was also handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and is prohibited from applying to be a licensed private hire driver or taxi driver with any authority within England and Wales and acting as a licensed private hire or taxi driver within England and Wales. He has also been registered on the Sex Offenders Register for five years upon his release.

The conviction follows an investigation by the Met’s Taxi and Private Hire Policing Team (T&PHPT). The court heard how on 7 December 2017 Ardic, a disqualified driver, fraudulently rented a vehicle.

The following day Ardic drove the vehicle illegally around Islington in the early hours looking for drunk, vulnerable females to sexually assault.

He picked up the first female, a woman aged in her early thirties on Upper Street stating he was her a private hire driver. The female got in to the back and soon fell asleep. The female woke up in a secluded area of Waterloo. Ardic got into the back and forced himself upon the female, touching her body. The female fought him off and got out of the vehicle, leaving her purse behind.

On 9 December 2017, Ardic drove the same vehicle around Stoke Newington where he picked up another vulnerable woman aged in her early twenties who thought he was her driver who she had called on a social media app.

The female soon fell asleep in the rear passenger seat. Ardic pulled up on a secluded road in Islington. She woke up to find Ardic sexually touching her under her clothing.

The female pushed and kicked Ardic off her, before she was able to escape from the vehicle.

The sexual assaults were reported to the police by both females who could not provide any specific details of the driver or his vehicle.

An investigation by T&PHPT followed and they linked both the offences.

Ardic had rented the vehicle on false details from a company based in France, which posed a number of challenges to the investigating officers. The information used by Ardic to rent the vehicle was analysed and it was also found that Ardic had used a bank card left inside the vehicle by the first female.

He was identified and arrested for the sexual assaults and various other offences relating to the assaults in January 2018, giving a no comment interview.

Over the course of the coming months, forensic submissions were made from both females' clothing and an extensive amount of data was viewed from Ardic's electronic devices, GPS from the vehicle, CCTV (including external bus footage) and data from one of the female's mobile phone.

All this painstaking work by the investigating officers finally enabled them to bring a case against Ardic.

On Friday 27 September 2019 charges for two sexual assaults, fraud and theft were authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service. A charge for the disqualified driving had been authorised prior to this.

Police Constable Jonny Harris, from the Met’s Roads and Transport Policing Command,  said: “Today’s sentencing reflects the seriousness of Ardic’s offending. There were a number of aggravating factors considered in this sentencing, despite Ardic’s guilty plea. The most prominent being the abuse of trust and the planning of these horrible assaults. 

"This conviction would not have been possible without these young women coming forward to the police. Both showed great courage and a great deal of patience throughout a lengthy investigation.”