50-year-old Gojek driver flirts with 10-year-old passenger; suspended

Singapore — A 50-year-old driver was suspended for flirting with a 10-year-old passenger who rode his vehicle alone to attend a swim class.

On Aug 27, the girl’s parents had no time to bring their daughter to her swim class, so they booked a private-hire vehicle from Gojek.

Three days later, while the father, 41, was scrolling through his tablet, he received a message from a stranger addressing his daughter.

The mysterious man was asking her if they could meet up after her tuition class that night.

“My wife and I both know who her friends are, and we’ve never seen this person’s name before. It felt really weird,” the girl’s father told Chinese newspaper Lianhe Wanbao.

It was reported that the driver had given their daughter his contact number and exchanged Facebook account details during the ride.

Logging into their daughter’s Facebook account, the parents discovered the man’s intimate messages such as “Do you miss me?”, “Why didn’t you call me?” and “I want to meet you.”

The driver also advised the daughter not to inform her parents about their communication.

The father then chatted with the driver using his daughter’s account and discovered he was 40 years her senior.

The parents then filed a police report and alerted Gojek about the incident.

Gojek confirmed being aware of the incident and has been communicating with the parties involved.

“The behaviour demonstrated did not meet the standards that we expect, and we’ve taken the decision to permanently suspend the driver from our platform,” said a Gojek representative to Asia One.

The ride-hailing company added it would continue cooperating with the authorities as needed.

Wanbao reported that the daughter simply thought the uncle wanted to be friends with her and did not expect the intimate messages.

“After explaining to my daughter (about the dangers of meeting a stranger by herself), she became frightened and started having nightmares,” said the daughter’s mother.

Police investigations are ongoing. /TISG

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