Taxi driver Syed Rizvi feared for his life in carjacking

A taxi driver has been left jobless after a passenger stole his vehicle at knifepoint before crashing while trying to evade police.

Syed Rizvi is contemplating his future after a terrifying carjacking at knifepoint yesterday. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

A TAXI driver says he feared for his life when a passenger pulled out a knife and demanded the vehicle at Rokeby on New Year’s Day.

Syed Rizvi had picked up a teenager from an address in nearby Clarendon Vale, when the young man allegedly threatened him with the weapon in broad daylight.

Mr Rizvi complied, leaving the vehicle safely as the suspect took off with the taxi and evaded police before being apprehended after he crashed at Mornington. The taxi driver was uninjured but severely shaken by the incident.

He does not know if he will be able to continue driving cabs.

“I couldn’t sleep. Everything was in my mind, whenever I closed my eyes [I was thinking about it], it was depressing,” he said.

“It was a horrible experience for me. It has never happened to me before.”

Mr Rizvi said he immediately got out of the car when the man produced the knife.

He said the man demanded his phone and wallet but Mr Rizvi refused, and the man drove off at speed.

“What if I didn’t suddenly get out of the cab, then he stab me?” he said.

“I was very frightened, I was unable to talk at that time.

“I was sitting on the road wondering what I should do ... then after about a minute, I called the cops on triple zero.”

The damaged taxi at the Mornington turn-off from the Tasman Highway. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Mr Rizvi, originally from Pakistan, said he had been driving taxis since he moved to Tasmania from South Australia in 2018.

He said he usually works in excess of 60 hours a week.

“I’m here with my wife, working hard to pay the bills and rent,” he said.

“[When I got home], she hugged me and started to cry.

“I’m jobless now, I don’t have a cab.”

He is already looking for a new job as he considers giving up taxi driving for good.

“I don’t want to do it anymore,” he said.

Mr Rizvi said he had experienced many instances of fare evasion and the occasional fit of abuse from customers, but nothing this serious.

Mr Rizvi praised the police for their handling of the situation.

“I was shivering at that time and I was unable to speak,” he said.

“They took me to the police station, they gave me some water to drink, I really appreciate the way they treated me.”

The 19-year-old man, of no fixed place of abode, was arrested after crashing the taxi while exiting the Tasman Highway at Mornington.

Police have charged him with aggravated carjacking, evading police and dangerous driving.

A police operation in Howrah that occurred just over an hour before the alleged carjacking was not related to the Rokeby incident, police have confirmed.