Horror stories from East Lancashire taxi drivers

Naz Hamed is the director of Mario Coach Hire in Burnley. He has accumulated many fantastic- and scary- memories throughout his career.

His company is one of the official contractors of Burnley Football Club, meaning his cars have transported some of the most famous faces in the club.


Mr Hamed said: “We’ve transported the likes of Sean Dyche, David Moyes, Ian Rush. We’ve had a lot of famous faces come through the door."

One of his favourite memories was when he went took a Burnley football club player on a pub crawl in Blackpool.

“We set off at about four in the afternoon and I dropped him back home at about 2 in the morning.

“He would spend about half an hour in each pub, then get back in the car and I would drive onto the next one.

“It was actually an amazing and unusual day and not one I’m likely to forget.”

However, not every day on the job is positive. Naz also recalled one time when his life was in danger and he was held at knife point after going to pick up a big group of people at a nearby farm.

He recalled: “I could have been killed that day.

“I got to a farm filled with a bunch of 18-24 year olds- and one of them turned nasty and started shouting racial slurs.

“He smashed a bottle on the back of my head and threatened to stab me.”

Naz left the bus unattended and ran for help, seeking refuge in a woman’s house.

He added: “They came looking for me, I saw them searching out the window- luckily, this lady helped me and I will never forget her kindness.”

When Naz returned to his coach everyone had gone, but his coach had been vandalized.

However, the story doesn’t end there- as the man who assaulted Naz turned up at the coach station a few years later.

Naz explained: “He came into my office one day and I confronted him. I asked ‘have you forgotten who I am and what you tried to do to me?’.

“He blamed the altercation on being drunk and was very red faced when he realised who I was.”

Naz explained that while there are bad days on the job- the great moments outweigh the negative.

Naz said his proudest moment in his career actually occurred in recent months.

With work forced to stop during the coronavirus, Naz has been trying to give back to community.

He said: “We’ve been offering free taxis to the NHS, the elderly and the vulnerable.

“When work starts to pick up again we want to give free coach journeys to those who can’t afford it- maybe take them to and from Blackpool.

“They have given us money and helped us stay in business- it’s only fair that we give them something back.”

(Photo: Foxy's Highfield Taxis)

Naz isn’t the only taxi driver in the region with some interesting stories to tell.

Foxy Khan, owner of Highfield Taxi in Blackburn, made headlines in May after someone left £3000 in one of his taxis.

He said: “We had a few passengers after the money had been forgotten- luckily, no one took it.

“The story had a happy ending though and the original owners were reunited with their money.

“We are an honest business and made every effort to get the money back to them”.

His company has stayed open during the pandemic, offering a “vital transportation service” for NHS workers.

He added: “We can’t wait for everything to go back to normal after the pandemic.

“It’s a family-run business and we have taken a big financial loss.”

Mr Khan said drivers at the company have been staying safe- but there is still a huge risk involved.

He said: “It’s baffled me that no one has talked about the risk taxi drivers have put themselves in during the pandemic.

“We’ve been operating for key workers and essentially putting our lives at risk.”

Mr Khan said he looking forward to when things can return to normal- but is also excited to make more interesting memories on the job.