AN investigation has been launched after two teenage girls say they boarded a taxi in Bury town centre and were locked in the vehicle for 90 minutes until a row over the fare was sorted.

Eighteen-year-olds Melissa Wheeler and Lauren Connor were taken on a terrifying journey after hailing a black cab to take them home to Kearsley after a night out in Bury on Saturday.

The teenagers claimed that when they told the driver they could not pay the fare until they got cash from their parents, he kept them prisoner in his cab as he drove around.

Police and licensing chiefs at Bury Council are now making inquiries into the incident.

Melissa, who works in a pub, said: "When we arrived at my house we told him he would get paid, but he would have to take Lauren home and she would get the money from her mum.

"He then said he was taking us back to Bury, but started to drive to Farnworth. We did not know where we going. We were both absolutely terrified."

Melissa said the cab stopped briefly at Moses Gate but the two were locked in the taxi as the driver spoke to other cab drivers.

Beauty therapist Lauren used her mobile phone to call her mother Lesley from the cab. She said: "I was telling my mum I did not know where he was taking us. I was really scared.

"I was telling her the places we were going through and landmarks we were passing and she was trying to follow the directions in her car."

Eventually the taxi driver pulled up in Bradshawgate, Bolton, and Lauren's mum pulled up behind the cab minutes later. The taxi driver demanded £35 and Mrs Connor called her husband, Roy, to settle the fare.

Mr Connor said: "I am not naive enough to think people don't jump out of cabs without paying, but one was being dropped off first and then the other. If they were going to avoid paying then they would have got out together.

"Why did the taxi driver drive them around for an hour-and-a-half and not take them back to Bury?"

Melissa's mum, Beverley, added: "Lauren's mum was frantic hearing her daughter screaming. It is a call no parent wants to get.

"The girls were honest with him and said he would get paid. Instead he drove them around for an hour-and-a-half which was costing him money."

The girls' parents have now contacted Bury Council which is responsible for licensing the town's taxi drivers.

A Bury Council spokesman said: "The licensing department has received a complaint regarding the incident on Saturday evening and is currently working closely with police carrying out an investigation."