AN INDEPENDENT dealer says his business was saved when he left £10,000 in the back of a taxi – and the driver returned it.
Adrian Quinn, who runs CQ Cars with his wife Maria in Herefordshire, left the cash – which was in a rucksack – as he was late getting to British Car Auctions in Walsall.
‘If I’d lost that bag it would have been the end of my business,’ he said. ‘We have built up our business from nothing for the past nine years and we are sole traders. We don’t have the backing of banks. It is hard work, but it earns us a living.’
Quinn praised the honesty of cabbie Mohammed Nisar for holding on to the cash for him.
Quinn said a train had been cancelled and he was running an hour late when he arrived at Walsall station. He did not have time to go to the bank before the auction to deposit the money. He said it was unusual to have so much money with him, but he had just cashed a cheque from his inheritance after his mother died in October.
He realised he had left the bag in the taxi just seconds after 55-year-old Nisar dropped him off and drove away.
Quinn said: ‘I was walking across the car park when I realised I hadn’t got my bag and I panicked. I tried to flag down another taxi, but they all had fares. I was sick. My body just went into shut down and I didn’t know what to do. I was in a daze.’
After eventually flagging down another cab, Quinn arrived back at the station taxi rank to find Mr Nisar sitting in his cab with the bag.
‘When I got there he had it on his lap, Quinn told the Worcester News. ‘I was emotional – I was a quivering wreck and had tears running down my face.’
Quinn gave Nisar a cash reward – in an envelope marked ‘to my best friend in the world’ – and has invited him and his wife to his home for a family meal.
It is not the first time Nisar, who has been a self-employed taxi driver for 15 years, has found valuables in the back of his car. Two years ago, a passenger left a wallet containing £150 and he returned to the man’s home to give it back. He said: ‘Honesty is the best policy. There are some drivers who don’t return things, but what is the point?’
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