TWO teenage girls say they were taken on a terrifying journey by a cab driver who locked them in his vehicle and refused to let them out for 90 minutes.

Melissa Wheeler and Lauren Connor, both aged 18, hailed a black cab to take them home to Kearsley after a night out in Bury Town Centre.

But when they told the driver they could not pay the fare until they got cash from their parents, they claim he kept them prisoner in his cab as he drove around.

Police and licensing chiefs at Bury council are now investigating the incident, on Saturday.

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Melissa, who works in a pub, said: "When we arrived at my house we told him he would get paid, but he would have to take Lauren home and she would get the money from her mum.

"He then said he was taking us back to Bury, but started to drive to Farnworth. We did not know where we going. We were both absolutely terrified."

Melissa said the cab stopped briefly at Moses Gate but the two were locked in the taxi as the driver spoke to other cab drivers.

Beauty therapist, Lauren, used her mobile phone to call her mother, Lesley, from the cab. She said: "I was telling my mum I did not know where he was taking us. I was really scared.

"I was telling her the places we were going through and landmarks we were passing and she was trying to follow the directions in her car."

Eventually the taxi driver pulled up in Bradshawgate, Bolton, and Lauren's mum pulled up behind the cab minutes later. The taxi driver demanded £35 and Mrs Connor called her husband Roy to settle the fare.

Mr Connor said: "I am not naive enough to think people don't jump out of cabs without paying, but one was being dropped off first and then the other. If they were going to avoid paying then they would have got out together.

"Why did the taxi driver drive them around for an hour-and-a-half and not take them back to Bury?"

Melissa's mum, Beverley, added: "Lauren's mum was frantic hearing her daughter screaming. It is a call no parent wants to get.

"The girls were honest with him and said he would get paid. Instead he drove them around for an hour-and-a-half which was costing him money."

The girls' parents have now contacted Bury Council who are responsible for licencing the town's taxi drivers.

licensing authority.

A Bury Council spokesman said: "The licensing department has received a complaint regarding the incident on Saturday evening and is currently working closely with police carrying out an investigation."

A police spokesman confirmed they were investigating the girl's allegations."

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