Threatened: Kathleen Cormick.
By Cherie Donnellan
A GEELONG taxi driver “threatened” to leave a pensioner in a deserted park after dark because she questioned the fare, the woman has told the Independent.
Geelong West’s Kathleen Cormick, 65, said she was forced to catch a taxi home from Geelong’s railway station after 8pm when a delayed V/Line train made her miss a bus connection.
“I’d been visiting my daughter in Melbourne and just wanted to get home before it was too dark,” Ms Cormick said.
Ms McCormick “felt uncomfortable” waiting for the next bus, so she found a taxi in the station’s rank to take her home.
But the driver told her he “didn’t know where to go” and failed to listen to her directions.
Ms Cormick said she was “too scared” to tell the driver her address, so she asked to be dropped off at Pakington Arcade.
“I knew where I was going but he wouldn’t listen to me but when I questioned him for taking me the wrong way and trying to overcharge me he told me to get out.”
Ms Cormick said the driver aggressively told her to “get out” at West Park, about 500 metres from her house, at 8.30pm.
The driver accused her of trying to evade the fare, she said.
“I had the money to pay for the taxi but I wanted to know why the fare was higher than I usually paid.”
Geelong Police advised Ms Cormick to make a formal complaint to the taxi company.
Geelong Taxi Network quality assurance officer Steve Fisher said he was unaware of the incident but would “certainly investigate”.
