Social media ‘lifts’ are becoming an ‘illegal industry’

“Doing lifts” is the phenomena of using social media to buy and sell car journeys in an online illegal “taxi” service.

More than 7,000 people are members of a closed group in Bournemouth, Dorset, the equivalent of a third of the town’s student population.

Once people are accepted into the group they can use their own cars to make money by charging for lifts in what taxi drivers in the town are calling an “illegal industry”.

Drivers and passengers in the group do not have background checks or training, pay no fees and are likely to be unlicensed and uninsured.

Bournemouth Borough Council said it was aware of the group and is taking the situation “very seriously”.

Video journalist: Ben Moore

Reconstruction actors: Amber Doughty, Ethan Mclennan, Jasie Dafter, Kimberly Raven, Michael Knight, Andrew Barnett