Traumatized victims complain of sexual harassment by food delivery workers

Words by Sophia Ankel

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of the victims.

The sun had already set when Lauren* went to find her delivery service. It was not uncommon for delivery drivers to get lost while looking for her home – a small boat docked on a canal in east London.

Just a few meters away, under a bridge, she spotted two men who appeared to be wearing Deliveroo jackets and the company’s typical green backpacks.

She said she had just walked towards them when the men grabbed her and brutally pushed her against the wall.

“I had two black eyes and my nose was bleeding and they just put their hands down my trousers and just touched me,” she told ITV News.

“It was all over pretty quickly, but… what upset me most at the time was that I didn’t do anything. I was just frozen. I was just completely frozen.

“When they left, my pants were halfway down, I was just standing against this wall, my nose was bleeding and I was really shocked. I kind of picked myself up and ran home,” she added.

Lauren immediately called police, but since there was minimal video footage from the area, officers were unable to help much, she said.

She sent an official complaint through Deliveroo’s app, but said she never received a response.

“I basically got a response from customer service saying, ‘You know, we’re taking this seriously and we’ll get back to you.’ But I never heard anything again,” she said.

She said she never asked because she was so “ashamed” of what had happened, adding: “I kind of wanted to forget about it. After trying for a while to get an update, I just gave up and decided to forget it had happened.”

Lauren is one of several women in the UK who told ITV News they were sexually harassed by food delivery workers.

The allegations range from flirtatious text messages and verbal harassment to public nuisance and rape, and involve drivers working for Deliveroo and UberEats.

The incidents often leave the women traumatized and feeling unsafe in their own homes.

Many do not want to talk about it and there is little public data available on the reports received by the police or companies.

Lauren’s experience left her deeply traumatised – she was unable to walk home alone for a long time and eventually got a dog to feel safer. Eventually she moved her boathouse out of London.

“I realised that I was no longer enjoying life on the canals of London. I felt unsafe. I was afraid of cyclists passing by and the like and thought that I would actually like to leave this environment,” she said.

Figures obtained by ITV News through Freedom of Information requests provide an insight into the scale of the problem.

Of the requests sent to 45 police departments across the country, 18 of those that responded had data on crimes of this type – the highest number of which were in the West Midlands, where officers recorded 12 cases of sexual harassment involving delivery drivers between 2020 and 2023.

Another region where cases of this kind have been recorded is Cornwall and Devon, where police say seven cases of public nuisance involving food delivery workers were recorded during the same period.

Many police departments were unable to respond to requests because they do not specifically record allegations of sexual harassment based on the perpetrator’s profession.

The highest number of such crimes was recorded by the 18 police departments in operation around 2021 during the Corona pandemic, when many people were at home and ordering more take-away food.

If you have had a bad experience with food delivery companies in the UK and would like to share your story, please contact [email protected]

Some of the cases have been more extreme: last month, a food delivery driver in Doncaster was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison after hiding in a woman’s toilet, cornering her and repeatedly asking her for sex. It is not clear which company he worked for.

In September 2021, an UberEats driver was sentenced to a three-year community sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl who had ordered a meal from McDonalds to her parents’ home in Denton, Manchester.

The driver asked the teen to “rate” him on the app before kissing her on the cheek and pulling her close to squeeze her bottom. He tried to pull away a blanket she had wrapped around herself before she screamed and ordered him to leave her house.

The driver had been fired from the company before his court date.

A woman from South Wales whose Deliveroo driver climbed into her bed and tried to kiss her after she left her front door unlocked told ITV News: “I think he tried to kiss me two, maybe three times, and that’s when I could feel the erection on my leg.”

“I used to enjoy having food delivered regularly, but this has shaken me,” added the woman, who wished to remain anonymous.

The woman managed to push the man out of her bed before he became frightened and ran out of the house before she could call the police.

Last year he was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison after admitting sexual assault.

“The stress at the time caused me to get sciatica and I was off sick for weeks at a time, which I attribute to post-traumatic stress disorder,” she added.

However, there are fears that the reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg.

Legal experts told ITV News that the number of cases is increasing, with the most common involving drivers writing to customers after delivering food to their address.

Danielle Vincent, a senior associate in the abuse and personal injury department at law firm Hugh James, said her team had “noticed a significant increase in reports of delivery services using personal contact details to inappropriately contact customers after the transaction has been completed”.

She said: “This included sharing offensive images and sexual harassment through inappropriate language or ‘teasing’.”

“Unfortunately, there are also reports of sexual assault. It is undoubtedly not only intrusive but also very frightening when someone knows where you live and what personal information you have.

Katreena* told ITV News that she received numerous text messages from an UberEats driver after ordering a takeaway in 2023. One of them, she said, called her “sexy” while another asked her out on a date.

“I ignored them because unfortunately I’m used to it. But it scared me because he knew where I lived,” she said.

She did not report the case to UberEats.

A survey published last year by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found that around one in three people aged 18 to 34 said they had been the victim of “predatory” text messages or calls from delivery drivers.

“People have the right to order a pizza, provide their email address to receive a receipt or have groceries delivered without being asked for sex or a date a short time later,” said Emily Keaney, Assistant Commissioner of the ICO.

“You have a right to know that if you share your personal information, it will not be used in a way that you do not agree to.

“Perhaps some people have an outdated notion that using someone’s personal information obtained in a business context to ask them out on a date is romantic or charming. Simply put, it is not – it is against the law.”

According to Vincent, when dealing with food delivery companies, there is often a dispute about whether a driver is considered an employee or self-employed and whether the company is therefore not liable for the individual.

Because most companies classify their drivers as self-employed, they tend to deflect blame from them, she added.

“That means the company should provide sufficient training and conduct clear CRB checks. Data such as phone numbers that the company collects and passes on to the driver should be ring-fenced and perhaps the ability to delete such information immediately after delivery should become mandatory,” Ms Vincent said.

A Deliveroo spokesperson told ITV News: “The safety of our customers is our top priority and Deliveroo has a zero-tolerance policy towards any harassing, discriminatory or offensive behaviour.

“If we become aware of reports of this nature, they will be forwarded immediately and we will work with the authorities to fully investigate the incident and block that driver’s Deliveroo account to prevent them from working with us again.”

An UberEats spokesperson told ITV News: “What has been described is completely unacceptable and we have a zero tolerance policy towards any such behaviour.”

“Any courier behaving in this way will face permanent removal from the app. All customer phone numbers and addresses are anonymized for Uber Eats couriers, meaning they will not be able to contact customers or see their address after delivery.”

If you are affected by any of the issues described in this article, you can find help and advice at the following locations: