A NEW WAVE OF CRIME BY BOLT DRIVERS, GETS DISMISSED IT AS A "POLITENESS" ISSUE.
A NEW WAVE OF CRIME BY BOLT DRIVERS, GETS DISMISSED IT AS A "POLITENESS" ISSUE.
London, England, 16th December 2025. London Cookery Author, Award Winning Purpose Driven Entrepreneur & Baker, Greg Wixted who founded the Tastes Good Does Good Group. A London based hospitality and food group, which donates 15% of revenue to fight food poverty was a victim of a new wave in crime and what he discovers was serious safety failure involving a Bolt Private Hire driver in London.
On 12th December at 1 AM, Whilst to one of his baking team he had given a lift home, he stepped out of his Bolt ride and 2 mins later remembered he had forgotten a cake he left in the boot, he called the driver via the app. The driver refused to return a Bolt driver to return it unless he paid him a £100 cash stating, "How much is the cake worth to you? And the bride
Wixted Commented “I was forced to withdraw cash from an ATM at 1 AM under duress to get the cake back, it was for a wedding the next day. We stopped at the Shell station, opposite my flat and they have CCTV footage of me getting out of the car, leaving the shop, them coming back to the cash machine and the driver arriving back for the cash which I have the bank receipt proving the transaction”
“When I reported this criminal extortion to Bolt, they dismissed it as a "politeness" issue. Their official response (attached) stated: "You should be able to have been comfortable... a refund is not applicable." Nor were they going to look into it.
“A global brand like Bolt thinks this kind of behaviour is acceptable and its ok for their drivers to hold customers to ransom and extort money from them, do they get a cut given they are desperate for cash. Bolt is not profitable. In their 2024 annual report, despite making nearly €2 billion in revenue, they posted a net loss of over €102 million and are facing a remedy hearing in 2026 to determine compensation amounts, with estimates around £200m for drivers who won a legal battle against the company in 2024 all this and with law suits pending their $450million raise on ice, so maybe this is a new way for them to raise money by robbing their passengers.
Any company losing €100m+ a year is desperate to cut costs. This explains why they might use cheap, automated "bots" like 'Mary' to handle safety complaints instead of paying for a human safety team. They are prioritising cost-cutting over passenger protection and safety.
Private Hire isn't the Safe Haven We Thought: Crime on in London is out of control, by taking a Bolt, we tried to avoid that risk, 71% of people feel unsafe in taxis/rideshares, indicating a general concern The Scale of the Problem: There are on average 175 sexual offences recorded every year involving BOLT and other private hire drivers in London. Extortion and theft is adding to a growing list of "dishonest and predatory" behaviours None that TFL is struggling to police. TfL provided data in December 2024 stating that a total of 986 private hire driver licences had been revoked in the preceding 18 months.
This highlights a critical failure in Bolt's safety protocols—they are prioritising revenue over investigating criminal behaviour by their drivers No one is safe,
Perhaps that explains why, when I reported this crime, they refused to investigate.
- They dismissed this extortion as a "politeness issue."
- They refused a refund.
- They ignored a GDPR data preservation request for the police
Wixted’s final piece of advice is ‘Don’t take BOLT, if you do you do hit the record button on your phone and if this registration KD17UEB pop up on your phone cancel at once or you could end up paying a kings ransom should you leave something behind.
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