Bristol private hire driver stripped of licence after Uber sexual misconduct reports

A Bristol private hire driver has had both his driver and vehicle licences revoked after councillors considered three complaints of inappropriate behaviour towards lone female passengers and allegations of dishonesty over a speeding offence.

Bristol City Council’s Public Safety and Protection Sub-Committee ordered the immediate revocation of the driver’s private hire driver licence on public safety grounds. His private hire vehicle licence was also revoked.

The case followed a notification from Uber confirming that it had permanently deactivated the driver’s account on 26 March 2026. According to the committee minutes, Uber told the council: “This driver’s account was deactivated because we have received reports of sexual misconduct.

Coupled with previous reports of similar nature the decision was made to permanently restrict CB’s access to the Uber application.”

Council enforcement officers requested further information under the conditions attached to Uber’s private hire operator licence. Three complaints of a similar nature were identified, including the incident reported in March 2026, and statements were obtained from the complainants or other relevant witnesses.

The committee was also told about a speeding offence recorded on the A4 Portway on 24 April 2024, when the driver’s vehicle was detected travelling at 53mph in a 40mph area. Another person living at the same address was nominated as the driver.

However, information subsequently obtained from Uber indicated that CB was working through the platform at the time and would have had a passenger in the vehicle. CB claimed that a housemate had taken the vehicle without permission and accessed his Uber account, although fare payments would have been made into CB’s bank account.

Committee members found that explanation was not credible. On the balance of probabilities, they concluded that CB had been driving and had named somebody else in an attempt to avoid receiving penalty points. The panel said that finding alone provided sufficient grounds for revocation under the council’s policy on dishonesty.

CB also denied behaving inappropriately towards passengers, describing some of the reported conversations as compliments or general discussion that had been misunderstood. He told the committee that he had completed more than 17,000 journeys and characterised the complaints as exaggerated or untrue.

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The committee did not find his explanations plausible. Members concluded that the three complaints were essentially truthful and demonstrated “a very concerning pattern of behaviour towards lone female passengers”.

CB told councillors that, despite his Uber account being deactivated, he was working for another operator identified in the minutes as “VISU”, which was not aware of the complaints. The disclosure raises a wider regulatory issue concerning how quickly safety information follows drivers moving between licensed operators.

Applying the national safeguarding test, councillors decided they would not allow a person for whom they cared to travel alone with the driver at any time of the day or night. His driver licence was revoked under section 61 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, with immediate effect because the committee considered it necessary in the interests of public safety.