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Sophie Frankpitt, 19, and her friends Madeleine and Poppy took the taxi from the Kirkdale area of Liverpool to the city centre after the app quoted a price of £9. The journey should take approximately 12 minutes as it’s just a four-mile trip but the driver took one-hour to get there.  

He drove the teenagers through the Mersey tunnels to Wirral, which is the other side of the River Mersey, and even charged the passengers for the toll.

Speaking to Liverpool Echo, Sophie said: “The driver had five stars on Uber, so we thought he would be good. The journey should have been basically a straight line and taken 12 minutes.

“But it lasted about an hour, he took us over to Wirral and even charged us for the toll.

“We felt incredibly intimidated, we didn’t know what to do.”

One of the girls tried to put the window down to get some air, but they said the driver took controls of the window and put it back up.

Sophie added: “This just added to the intimidating nature of the trip, we felt powerless and really uncomfortable.”

The quick-thinking girls, who had been texting each other in the back of the car, started talking loudly about how they would be meeting one of their dads and boyfriends.

This seemed to alert the driver, who turned around and eventually took them to their destination – but with an overall bill of £40.

Sophie said: “We are three young women, we felt intimidated and unsafe, and we would hate other young women to go through the same experience – particularly if they were on their own.”

The teens, from Somerset, were on a break in Liverpool at the weekend after a tough year of lockdown.

Sophie and her mum Catherine have since complained several times to Uber and asked for a refund on the trip, but were told on several occasions that the matter was considered closed and a refund would not be forthcoming.

However, after the press contacted Uber, the company refunded Sophie’s account and said they are investigating what happened.

Catherine, Sophie’s mum said: “We think maybe the driver was trying to pull a fast one after seeing three young girls who were clearly new to the city, but they were very shaken and nervous after it.

“It’s such a shame that they had this experience at the start of a fun trip to Liverpool after such a difficult time.”

Sophie added that she was disappointed that it took Uber so long – and for the media to be involved – to act and offer a refund.

She said: “Uber refused to refund us three times, despite me explaining everything in detail twice.

“We really don’t want other young girls to go through something like this.”

An Uber spokeswoman said: “The safety of everyone who uses the Uber app is a top priority, and we are sorry that the group had such a poor experience with us. We are currently investigating what happened, and have refunded the user in the meantime.”

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