The taxi driver who dropped Southport killer Axel Rudakubana at the children’s dance class where he murdered three girls, then waited 50 minutes before calling emergency services, has been stripped of his taxi licence by Sefton Council.
Gary Poland, 56, drove away from Hart Space dance studio on 29 July 2024 after hearing what he believed were gunshots and seeing children fleeing the building in terror — but rather than dialling 999, he picked up another fare and returned home first. By the time he called emergency services, Alice Da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, had been stabbed to death at the Taylor Swift-themed holiday dance class.
A Sefton Council spokesman confirmed the decision, saying: “This individual no longer holds a taxi driver licence following a review by the local authority. A decision was taken that this individual did not meet the appropriate standards set out in Sefton Council’s taxi licensing policy.” The council’s own taxi licensing handbook states that drivers should dial 999 if they believe a child or young person is in serious danger of immediate harm.
The Southport Inquiry, held at Liverpool Town Hall in September 2025, heard harrowing details of Poland’s actions in the minutes after dropping Rudakubana off. Dashcam footage captured a phone call Poland made to a friend moments after driving away, in which he said: “I’ve just dropped a lad off, I chased him down your thing. He ran next door and I think he shot some people. Do you not hear screaming and shots go off? He’s just fing shot everyone ain’t he?” His friend replied “lucky you weren’t in it,” to which Poland responded: “He shot up stairs and I heard these fing shots and I f***ing shot off. Lucky he didn’t shoot me, weren’t it?”
Counsel to the inquiry Nicholas Moss KC put it directly to Poland that as he drove away, children were running alongside his car and he could be seen checking his rear-view camera. Poland confirmed that was correct but said he had not seen anyone injured. The inquiry also heard that Poland had threatened to call police when Rudakubana refused to pay his fare, but assumed he had gone inside to get money.
In his evidence, Poland acknowledged the weight of what he had failed to do. “I regret not helping the children,” he said. “Their screams were harrowing and I can still hear them when I think back to that day. I regret not doing more. There isn’t a day that passes when I don’t think about that day and what ifs. What if I had called the police? What if I had got out of my car? What if I had apprehended him for not paying me? But I do not know the answers.”
He described his state of mind at the time as one of panic and fear, saying he had believed Rudakubana was armed. “I was in a state of complete mortal terror and shock,” he said. “I just panicked and was not thinking clearly. I can only say that I panicked, and I fled for my own safety. I cannot imagine what the victims and the families of the victims have been through and they have my deepest sympathy for what happened that day.”
