An unassuming office above a children’s playschool in a Birmingham industrial park was at the centre of a multi-million pound investigation at Britain’s biggest council.
The tiny premises is the listed base of operations of taxi firm Green Destinations Ltd, which will have billed Birmingham City Council an eye-watering £17million this year for ferrying children to and from school, analysis of documents leaked to MailOnline reveals.
Our investigation has uncovered that GDL, owned and run by Jameel Malik, are routinely paid around £200 a day – tens of thousands of pounds a year – to drive lone pupils just a few miles to school.
Included among the dozens of huge charges is a £230, three days a week charge, to drive a single child less than two miles each way to school in a wheelchair-accessible cab, around £65 per mile. A Hackney Carriage fare would be less than £15 a day.
Another example is a £210 a day, or £40,500 a year, fare to drive one pupil a little more than three miles each way.
