Honest taxi driver hands back passenger's forgotten bag containing £10,000

Car dealer Adrian Quinn says cabbie Mohammed Nisar saved his business when he held onto large amount of cash for him at Walsall station

An honest taxi driver has made a friend for life after returning a passenger's bag containing £10,000.

Car dealer Adrian Quinn said cabbie Mohammed Nisar saved his business when he held onto the large amount of cash for him.

The 46-year-old was running late for one of his regular business trips to British Car Auctions, in Walsall, from his home in Hereford because a train had been cancelled.

He was an hour behind schedule when he arrived at Walsall station and did not have time to make his usual trip to the bank before the auction to deposit the money - so took it with him in a rucksack.

Mr Quinn realised he had left the bag in the car just seconds after 55-year-old Mr Nisar dropped him off.

He 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 just in a daze."


Mr Quinn said it was unusual for him to carry so much money, but had just cashed a cheque from his inheritance after his mother died in October.

He said: "If I'd lost that bag it would have been the end of my business. We have built it up from nothing for the last 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."

After eventually flagging down another cab, the father of three arrived back at the station taxi rank to find Mr Nisar sitting in his cab with the bag safely on the passenger seat.
 
"I was very emotional," he said." "I said, 'Do you know what was in that bag? Put it this way, it is not a box of sandwiches or a newspaper. There is £10,000 in there'."

Mr Quinn gave Mr Nisar a cash reward - in an envelope marked "to my best friend in the world" - and has even invited him and his wife to his home for a family meal.

Adrian Quinn, right, said he has a new best friend in taxi driver Mohammed Nisar

Mr Nisar said: "He was very, very thankful. He had just bought a car but forgot the bag full of money."

It is not the first time Mr 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. Now, following his latest find, he is urging fellow taxi drivers to do the same if they find themselves in a similar situation.

Mr Nisar said: "Honesty is the best policy. There are some drivers who don't return things, but what is the point?

"If the council had not have called me and no one had claimed it after 12 or 24 hours, I would have taken that bag straight to the police station."

He added: "Mobile phones are the most common thing left behind, but most of them now can be traced anyway. "My message is to encourage all my taxi driving brothers that if they find something valuable just give it back."


Credit: The Telegraph