Uber Driver Pleads Guilty to Kidnapping, Groping Passenger

An Uber driver has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and groping a sleeping passenger and then ditching her on the side of a road. He then allegedly charged her over $1,000 for a trip she didn’t take.

According to the New York Post, 25-year-old Harbir Parmar “pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping and one count of wire fraud in White Plains federal court” over “the Feb. 21, 2018, incident in which a female passenger in his car riding from Manhattan to her home in White Plains fell asleep — only to awake with Parmar’s hand under her shirt touching her breast.”

“The victim realized she didn’t know where she was and asked Parmar to take her home and eventually asked to be taken to a police station,” reported the New York Post. “Instead, prosecutors say, Parmar left her on the side of the I-95 in Branford, Conn., 60 miles from home… She also later discovered Parmar allegedly charged her $1,047 for a trip to Boston.”

On top of the kidnapping and groping charges, Parmar also reportedly “charged customers for false cleaning fees totaling over $3,600,” on eleven separate occasions.

In a statement, Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman declared, “Last year, Harbir Parmar took advantage of a vulnerable woman who utilized a ridesharing service by kidnapping and terrorizing her… In addition, he charged many of his ridesharing customers with fraudulent fees. Today, he admitted his guilt in open court, and will now be held accountable for his brazen crimes.”

Other Uber drivers have previously been accused of kidnapping and sexual assault.

In 2018, an illegal alien working for Uber was charged with raping and sexually assaulting four young women, while in 2017, an Uber driver was charged with raping a 16-year-old girl in Georgia.

There have also been cases of alleged Uber driver rape, assault, and sexual harassment in New York, San Antonio, Boston, Dallas, and Australia., and in January, an Uber driver pleaded guilty to murdering six people.

In 2017, Uber pledged $5 million to sexual assault prevention groups after two women who claimed to have been raped by Uber drivers claimed in a lawsuit that “thousands” of other women had also “endured unlawful conduct” from drivers for the company.