A young woman who claims she was indecently assaulted by a taxi driver says the incident has come down to her word against his because security footage taken inside the cab is missing.
The 23-year-old says she was assaulted while she was driven home from a central Auckland bar and thought it would have been captured on film. When police requested the camera chip from inside the taxi they found the footage was "unavailable" despite repeated attempts to access it. The company denies this - but will not say why it did not provide the camera chip to police.
Officers could not apply for a search warrant in this case without a specific address to search, and the driver denied the allegations when he was interviewed.
It's understood much of the difficulty with the case revolves around the identity of the driver. The company says the man the woman named to police was not working on the night of the alleged incident.
The incident is the latest in a series of problems to plague the taxi industry since compulsory security cameras were introduced two years ago, including revelations last month that hundreds of cameras could be faulty and did not comply with requirements.