Uber driver attempted to burgle a customer's house after dropping her off at the airport

An Uber driver in Denver, Colorado in the US has been arrested for allegedly doubling back to try and burgle a customer's house after dropping her off at the airport.

According to the Denver Police Department, Uber driver Gerald Montgomery, 51, took a female passenger to Denver International Airport on 26 March and then returned to her home, where he "tried to break in through the back door with burglary tools".

The woman's housemate had just arrived home though and she confronted Montgomery, who then abandoned his attempts.

Unfortunately for Montgomery, the passenger had taken a screenshot on her phone of the receipt for the ride on the Uber app, which includes the driver's picture. The housemate identified Montgomery from the photograph and the police were called.

The housemate posted on Facebook: "I had just gotten home when he was about to get in the back door. He probably thought no one else was here. Friends that take Uber, please be careful."

Uber told the Denver Post that it has removed Montgomery's access to the Uber database pending the results of the police investigation and is committed to supporting the Denver Police Department. The taxi app firm has also reached out to the customer and refunded her ride.

Uber maintains that all of its drivers have to undergo rigorous background checks before they can be employed, but in several countries around the world, Uber drivers have been involved in criminal incidents.

In the US alone, an investigation by local TV station NBC4 in Southern California in May 2014 found that several Uber drivers had felony records, and there were reported incidents of robberies carried out by Uber drivers as well as sexual assaults by a driver in Orlando, Florida and a driver in Los Angeles.

The most high profile incident occurred in December in New Delhi, when a 26-year-old female passenger was raped and beaten by an Uber driver, who threatened to kill her if she reported the incident.

Uber is becoming increasingly unpopular in several countries, not just with taxi drivers who hate the competition price-undercutting, but also with governments.

Prosecutors ordered a raid on Uber's Paris headquarters on 17 March, the same day that South Korean prosecutors officially charged Uber CEO Travis Kalanick on suspicion of running an illegal taxi ring in South Korea.