Don't trust 'malicious' social media rumours, says taxi company

Local residents are being urged not to trust social media after "malicious rumours" have caused trouble for a local taxi business.

Britannia Cars in Heywood fell victim to an untrue rumour spreading across social media stating that “Britannia Taxis have complained about their drivers being offended by England flags and banners”.

This has been strongly denied by company manager Mohammed Rizwan who said: “This is complete lies. I have no idea where this has come from and I don’t understand why it is being said.

“My logo is a Union Jack and I have a Union Jack flag flying from my premises twelve months of the year. I am even trying to incorporate the logo into the whole of the car door. This has come at a really bad time with the World Cup ongoing and I don’t understand it.”

Drivers from the company are now having to deny the rumours to customers with Mohammed saying he is going to have to contact customers directly to clear up the issue.

He said: “70% of our customers are young people who are active on social media and we are having people get in the cars saying that we have said this and asking us if it true or not. My drivers have to defend themselves and deny this now. It is really starting to affect business.

“We can text our customers so now I am going to have to spend around £600-£700 texting individual customers to tell them that this is not true. People shouldn’t always listen to things on social media.”

It is currently unclear where the message originated from and why it was sent in the first place.

Mohammed added: “Luckily a lot of our customers are loyal and understand that we have not said these things but I really don’t know where this has come from and why we have been targeted.”