Police revoked taxi driver’s permit two years after rape

Police revoked a taxi driver’s permit in August 2026, two years after he raped a passenger, an investigation by Yle’s Swedish-language service found. The driver continued taking taxi passengers after the offence and after his conviction.

The woman had been spending an evening at a restaurant in central Jyväskylä in July 2024. She became unwell while walking home and collapsed. A car with a taxi sign on its roof stopped beside her.

She gave the driver her address but remembered little else about the journey. At some point, she fell asleep. When she woke up, she was lying on a mattress in an unfamiliar apartment.

The woman tried to leave but the driver blocked her. He pulled down her trousers and forcibly performed oral sex on her. She managed to break free and fled the apartment before immediately reporting the incident to police.

The Central Finland District Court convicted the 49-year-old driver of rape in September 2025 and sentenced him to one year and six months of suspended imprisonment. He was also ordered to complete 60 hours of community service.

Because the sentence was suspended, the man’s career as a taxi driver did not end. He told police in July that taxi driving was his only source of income. The Central Finland Police Department revoked his taxi driving permit during Yle’s investigation, in August 2026.

Yle did not disclose the driver’s name because the prison sentence was less than two years. His defence lawyer did not respond to Yle’s requests to contact him. The victim’s identity was also not disclosed in the court judgment.

Convictions are not automatically reported to police

Yle’s investigation found that taxi drivers convicted of sexual offences may continue driving after their crimes and convictions. The police are responsible for revoking permits, but courts do not automatically forward information about convictions to them.

Traficom, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, grants and renews taxi driving permits for five years at a time. Before issuing or renewing a permit, it checks whether the applicant has any final prison sentences recorded in the criminal register from the previous five years. Sexual offences are among the offences that prevent a person from obtaining a permit.

Police must monitor drivers during the validity of their permits and ensure that they do not commit offences that would prevent them from working in the profession. If police do not learn about a sexual offence conviction, a driver may in principle continue working for up to five years before action is taken.

In the Jyväskylä case, the Central Finland Police Department conducted the pre-trial investigation but did not temporarily revoke the driver’s permit while he was suspected of rape.

Chief Superintendent Mikko Porvali of the Central Finland Police Department said police discretion is limited because a person’s right to work can only be restricted when it is probable that they committed the offence under investigation.

Yle examined rape cases involving taxi drivers

Svenska Yle listed all charges brought for rape or attempted rape from January 1, 2024, and examined cases in which a district court had issued a judgment by March 1, 2026.

The journalists checked whether convicted taxi drivers still appeared among holders of taxi driving permits. Traficom refused to provide Svenska Yle with a list of permit holders, citing data protection rules. Individual permits can be checked on Traficom’s website, but the system is not suitable for a broader review.

Yle therefore carried out spot checks of rape convictions and found the cases described in its report.

Sexual offences committed by taxi drivers became more common after the taxi industry was deregulated in 2018. Since then, more than 100 reports of suspected sexual offences by taxi drivers have been filed in Helsinki alone, according to the article.