Macau (MNA) – Macau Police authorities have already forwarded the recent kidnapping case involving a taxi driver to Public Prosecution Office for investigation, which considered that the case will be investigated as a possible kidnapping.
The incident in question took place on June 12 when a 60-year old man with with his grandson took a taxi and requested to be taken to Avenida Sun Yat-Sen.
According to Exmoo News, the taxi driver drove both to the wrong location in Rua do Porto, and refused to take them to the requested location, claiming he had misheard the location because he couldn’t understand the man’s Mandarin.
The client then refused to leave the car until the taxi driver took him and his grandson to the right location as it was raining heavily at the time, with the driver at that point leaving the car and locking both inside.
The client called two colleagues for assistance which arriving the location attempted to open the car door, which called the police authorities after being unsuccessful.
The Macau Public Prosecution Office announced today that the case would be investigated as a kidnapping case, a crime that can lead to a prison sentence between one to five years, or in case of aggravated kidnapping, five to 15 years.
After a first interrogation was conducted by the prosecution office and taking into account the seriousness of the facts and the specific circumstances of the investigation, the criminal investigation judge ordered that the accused taxi driver be placed in term of identity and residence, with the obligation of reporting to authorities and having a bail set.
The Macau government is currently analysing at Legislative Assembly (AL) committee level a new bill proposal for new taxi service regulations.
Proposed changes to taxi service regulations in Macau suggest taxi drivers could see their license revoked after committing four serious infractions in a five year period and that drivers should have to install GPS and sound recording systems in their vehicles.
In 2017 some 5,491 taxi infractions were registered by authorities, a 32.2 per cent year-on-year increase.
