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  "path": "/news/axel-rudakubana-taxi-driver-gary-poland-stripped-licence-southport",
  "publishedAt": "2026-07-03T02:44:51.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "People-smugglers caught using TikTok to promote lorry crossings OUT of Britain to France",
    "Grooming gang ringleader was deemed too dangerous to be released from jail four YEARS ago",
    "Robert Jenrick urges Andy Burnham to ‘pressure’ Pakistan and see grooming gang leader deported",
    "demanded a change in culture",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nThe taxi driver who drove Axel Rudakubana to the scene of the Southport massacre has been stripped of his licence.\n\nGary Poland, 57, took the teenager to the Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29, 2024, where he went on to murder Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King and Alice da Silva Aguiar - and attempted to kill 10 others.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe taxi driver told the Southport Inquiry in September that he drove away from the scene despite seeing children flooding out from the dance studio “like a stampede for their lives” because he thought he heard gunshots.\n\nMr Poland, then a driver for One Call Taxis, did not call 999 until 50 minutes after hearing screams coming from the Hart Space studio, having picked up another fare and returned home first.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\nMr Poland also told the inquiry, held at Liverpool Town Hall, he had threatened to call the police when Rudakubana ignored his requests to pay his fare, but thought he had gone to get money when he went into the building.\n\nThe taxi driver said he “regretted” not staying at the scene to help the children targeted in the mass stabbing.\n\nSefton Council has confirmed that Mr Poland has since had his licence revoked.\n\nA spokesman said: “This individual no longer holds a taxi driver licence following a review by the local authority.\n\n“A decision was taken that this individual did not meet the appropriate standards set out in Sefton Council’s taxi licensing policy.”\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nAmong the statements in the council's taxi licensing handbook is a call for drivers to dial 999 if they feel a child or young person is in serious danger of immediate harm.\n\nNicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, asked the 57-year-old: “Do you accept, as you drove away, children were fleeing alongside your car and you can be seen looking in the rear view camera?”\n\nMr Poland replied: “That’s correct. I did not know anybody was injured. I did not see anybody injured.”\n\nLawyers representing the families of the victims welcomed the decision on Thursday, describing it as a “necessary step towards securing individual accountability”.\n\nThey said Mr Poland's conduct on that fateful day “fell below the standards the public should expect”.\n\n### CRIME - READ THE LATEST:\n\n\n\n\n  * People-smugglers caught using TikTok to promote lorry crossings OUT of Britain to France\n  * Grooming gang ringleader was deemed too dangerous to be released from jail four YEARS ago\n  * Robert Jenrick urges Andy Burnham to ‘pressure’ Pakistan and see grooming gang leader deported\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nIn transcripts of the taxi driver's call following the attack shown to the inquiry, he could be heard saying: \"I heard these f****** shots and I just f****** shot off.\n\n\"Lucky he didn’t f****** shoot me, weren’t it.”\n\nAfter returning to his home, he finally phoned the police at 12.36pm.\n\nMr Poland said in a statement: “I should have checked on the welfare of the children and helped.\n\n\"I thought there was a gunman shooting at people and I believed this to be the person who I had just been shouting at to pay me a fare and threatened to call the police, so I did believe that I was in danger of being a target.”\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe Southport Inquiry chairman, Sir Adrian Fulford, demanded a change in culture in April after uncovering a series of damning failures ahead of the attack.\n\nHe said there had been a “fundamental failure” by any organisation to take responsibility for the danger posed by the teenage killer in the years before the mass stabbing.\n\nSir Adrian set out a total of 67 recommendations based on the findings of the Southport inquiry.\n\nHome Secretary Shabana Mahmood accepted his findings on Thursday, and insisted the Government would “right the wrongs” of the killing spree.\n\nShe added: “We will do whatever is needed to protect the public.\n\n\"The Southport inquiry identified fundamental failings across many of our public services in the years leading up to July 2024.”\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Axel Rudakubana's taxi driver stripped of licence after waiting 50 minutes to call police as killing spree unfolded"
}