More needs to be done to clamp down on private hire drivers illegally plying for trade in Bradford, Hackney Carriage bosses have warned.

They have called for Council enforcement officers to step up late-night patrols in the city centre to crackdown on minicab drivers who tout for fares which have not been pre-booked at their offices.

The warning by Mulazam Hussain, assistant chairman of Bradford Hackney Carriage Owners’ Association, follows the jailing for ten years on Thursday of rogue cabbie Mohammed Ahmed, who twice raped a young mum he had illegally picked up in the street outside Bradford University.

Ahmed, 42, a married man, of Clifton Villas, Manningham, attacked the 19-year-old, who had been trying to get home after a night out, after he drove her to a secluded spot in Allerton. He was branded a “sexual predator” by the judge who imprisoned him.

Earlier this year Mohammed Shazad, of Brantdale Road, Heaton, was jailed for nine years in June for raping a teenage passenger in Bradford who got into his private hire vehicle in Leeds city centre.

Mr Hussain said: “When people come in our taxis they trust that they are going to get home safe. Everybody who comes in your taxi, you have responsibility for them. We have been saying to many, many authorities that it’s wrong for people to flag cars down in the street who are not proper taxis – it could be anybody driving around.

“There should be more random checks, more inspectors should be out.”