A taxi driver who drove two girls to a police station after they refused to pay him is devastated after being accused of kidnapping them on Facebook.
The mother of one of the girls in Hull posted a picture of Yakup Kahramanog, 42, online and he quickly began getting threats and abuse.
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Taxis drivers are advised to drive passengers who refuse to pay their fairs directly to a police station but the backlash against Mr Kahramanog has left him considering giving up his job.
He told the Hull Daily Mail: ‘This is a really horrible situation to be in, it’s libellous. There are thousands of people on Facebook who have seen the post and I feel like I am being judged by them all because it has got everywhere.
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‘I don’t want to go to work at night now, I am even thinking of leaving the taxi job and selling my car. I just don’t know what could happen to me.
‘How can I work confidently when I know someone who has seen me on Facebook could get in my car and attack me?’
Mr Kahramanog picked the girls up in west Hull at around 3.30am on Tuesday and drove them towards their homes, but they aroused suspicion by taking their shoes off and whispering to each other.
He asked them for £12, but they could only offer him £1. Then he asked them to get their parents to pay or to go to a cash machine, after they refused he drove to the police station.
Peter Nilsson, chairman of the Hull Hackney Carriage Association, backed Mr Kahramanog after viewing the CCTV footage.
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He said: ‘He has acted in exactly the way he should. He never went anywhere near the girls and they were safe in the back of the vehicle.’
‘What he has gone through is awful. The woman has judge, jury and executed him on social media.’
Humberside Police confirmed they had given advice to both the taxi driver and the girls’ parents as the issue was a civil not a criminal matter.
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