16-05-2025
Foreign Secretary says he and his wife are victims of theft but the French taxi driver says David Lammy refused to pay... so who's taking who for a ride? GUY ADAMS investigates
The scenario may be grimly familiar to many British tourists who've decided to entrust their holiday transport to a taxi driver abroad.
Having negotiated a suitable fare, you hit the road. Only to discover, upon arrival at your final destination, that the fee for the journey has mysteriously – and dramatically – increased.
A furious row ensues, in which the taxi driver's grasp of English seems to progressively worsen. Threats are issued and voices raised. Sometimes, the local police are called. And at the end of the whole thing, a hapless Brit is left hundreds of pounds out of pocket.
All this, and more, affected one very high-profile visitor to the French Alps during the Easter holidays last month.
The individual in question was one David Lammy, our Foreign Secretary. And the location in the Haute-Savoie region was Flaine, a French ski resort popular with Brits whose budgets don't extend to more up-market destinations across the Swiss border.
It emerged this week that our nation's diplomat-in-chief became involved in a gloriously petty dispute with a local cabbie named Naseem Mimum on the evening of April 10.
Prosecutors are investigating the altercation, which appears to have started after Mr Mimum, a 40-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent, asked Lammy and his wife, artist Nicola Green, to hand over almost £600 in cash upon arrival at their holiday chalet.
The Foreign Secretary stands accused of 'acting like a thug' during the subsequent argument, in which he insisted that the fare had already been 'paid in full' when the six-hour journey was booked via an agency.
Mimum, for his part, is alleged to have 'fraudulently removed luggage and cash' from the couple, who have claimed in a police statement that he attempted to intimidate them by opening his vehicle's glove compartment, which revealed a knife.
So what really happened? Who was to blame? And how did the holder of one of Britain's great offices of State allow himself to become embroiled in an undignified, kerbside shouting match?
A cab to the mountains
Lammy and Green decided to visit Flaine from Italy, where they'd been accompanying King Charles on a State Visit, which had involved tours of the Colosseum and the Quirinale Palace plus a cocktail party in the garden of Villa Wolkonsky, the official residence of the UK ambassador.
The four-day trip was due to wind up in the town of Ravenna on Thursday April 10, with the royal party departing from the nearby airport in Forli.
The Foreign Secretary and his wife, who married in 2005 and have three children, appear to have decided the easiest way to get to their holiday on the slopes would be by taxi.
A Foreign Office staffer was instructed to book a transfer to the Alpine resort.
They used GetTransfer, a large taxi agency popular with British tourists, to book a small SUV for the 360-mile trip, which usually takes around six hours.
The agreed fare, of around £717, seems to have then been paid directly to the firm by the UK Government.
It's understood that the Lammys had agreed to refund the cost later, which would be a standard arrangement for a minister using officials to arrange what is effectively a private journey.
King Charles III and UK Secretary of State David Lammy participate in a 'Clean Power for Growth' roundtable during a visit to the Mattatoio on day three of King Charles III and Queen Camilla's State visit to The Republic of Italy on April 09, 2025
The vehicle
Driver Mimum had been instructed to pick up two passengers at Forli Airport at 5pm that Thursday and drive them to Flaine's main resort, a collection of large modern buildings situated at an altitude of 1600m.
A copy of the booking docket seen by the Mail stated that he would be using a Ford Kuga for the journey. However a couple of days prior to the journey, the driver says GetTransfer contacted him saying the client had asked for a grander vehicle.
'I received a request from Get Transfer for a Mercedes S-Class for the trip, presumably because the client wanted an upgrade but I didn't have one,' he said. 'The rate for an S-Class for ordinary people is 3,500 euros per day, and for VIPs and government people it goes up to 5,100 euros per day.'
Lammy duly agreed to stick with the Kuga, a black vehicle with leather seats.
Although the UK Government provides close protection for senior ministers both in the UK and when they are on official business abroad, the provision does not seem to extend to private holidays. Neither was the car searched before departure. As a result, the Foreign Secretary and his wife were waved off on the journey, stretching into the night, in a car driven by an unvetted French taxi driver who, the Lammys allege, was travelling with a knife.
'VIP' status row
The driver says he realised, upon first meeting the Lammys, that the couple were important officials, telling the Mail that 'their luggage made that clear'.
This discovery lies at the centre of their subsequent dispute, because GetTransfer's 'VIP' service costs almost twice as much as its standard service.
In return, customers are provided with a range of benefits, from unbranded, discreet vehicles, free beverages and phone chargers, to drivers qualified to act as bodyguards.
'In this type of transfer, we're driving special people, with suitcases and sensitive documents. All of that comes at a price,' says Mimum. 'I'm licensed to transport VIPs, I got my licence in 2007, but I wasn't told Mr Lammy was a VIP. If I'd known Mr Lammy was such an important government figure, I would have charged a lot more. Nobody told me he was so senior... If I had been told he was a VIP representing a foreign government, I would have had to declare my identity to the French embassy.'
During the journey into the Alps, Mr Mimum appears to have attempted to negotiate an increased fare with the agency in phone calls, without success.
Alpine altercation
Upon arrival in Flaine, some time around midnight, the driver began addressing his concerns over the agreed fare to Mr and Mrs Lammy, saying that it had now increased, from the original £717 to £1,305.
What's more, he demanded the extra £588 in cash.
What happened next is vigorously disputed but both parties agree the Foreign Secretary refused to pay, sparking a furious row. 'When I dropped the couple off in France, and asked for the extra money, Mr Lammy lost it. He was acting like a thug,' alleges Mimum, adding that the politician 'took the receipt from my hand' and committed 'assault and violence'.
The Foreign Office has released a statement saying: 'We totally refute these allegations. The fare was paid in full.' At one point, Lammy disappeared into the holiday chalet. His wife, who was left alone in the car with the angry Frenchman, appears to have become seriously concerned for her safety. According to the PA news agency: 'She told police in a statement that she felt threatened and that the taxi driver had showed her a knife in his glovebox.'
Lost luggage
The circumstances in which the shouting match ended are again disputed. Mr Mimum alleges he decided to report his passengers to police in Cluses, the nearest open Gendarmerie, 12 miles away.
'Because I was scared of Mr Lammy's behaviour, I drove off from them. The doors of the car were open, and I had no idea their luggage was still in my car,' he says. 'It was only when I got to the police station that I realised it was still there.
'It wasn't stolen, I handed it to the police. Everything was handed over, including a briefcase with a code to open it.'
Mr Mimum has also shared a picture he said showed Mr Lammy and his wife had left his car in what he called 'a filthy state' with food wrappers and empty sugar sachets strewn across the seats.
He says: 'There was rubbish all over the place – you'd expect people like this to show more respect.' The Foreign Office believes the cases were only handed to police after officials rang the driver to inform him of the consequences of stealing them. However a 'considerable' sum of money was missing from Mrs Lammy's bag when it was eventually returned.
Diplomatic episode
According to Mr Mimum, the gendarmes found diplomatic passports, two licence plates – presumably diplomatic plates that are placed over local plates –and a coded briefcase in the boot of the taxi, allowing them to identify Lammy and his wife.
'There was also a rolled up artwork, that lawyers told me was worth millions of euros,' he has added. Again, this recollection appears to be disputed by the Foreign Secretary.
His wife does not have a diplomatic passport, it was reported yesterday, while Mr Lammy was travelling on his normal document since the journey was a private trip. The Foreign Office is also keen to avoid a dispute over security protocol, with sources denying any sensitive papers or artworks were left in the vehicle.
...And so to court
A local prosecutor, Boris Duffau, confirmed this week that both parties have filed legal complaints against each other.
'The stories between the two parties are not the same. Of course, the passengers are not saying the same thing as the driver when he filed a complaint,' he said. 'The passengers have assured that the driver had already been paid. The driver said the opposite.'
The 'commercial dispute' has apparently seen Lammy and his wife sue Mimum for 'fraudulently removing luggage and cash' from them during his speedy getaway. The driver is said to have counter-sued.
Following an investigation, Mr Duffau appears to have sided with the Foreign Secretary, saying the driver will face a court hearing on November 3. 'An investigation has been opened following a disagreement regarding the payment of a taxi ride between Italy and France,' he told the BBC.
'He has been charged with theft [of luggage and cash] to the detriment of Nicola Green and David Lindon Lammy.'
The Foreign Office said: 'The Foreign Secretary and his wife are named as victims in this matter and the driver has been charged with theft. As there is an ongoing legal process, it would be inappropriate to comment further.'
