Undercover film reveals how West End pedicab drivers rip off tourists and receive cash from prostitutes for delivering customers

London rickshaw drivers' links to the sex trade were exposed today, as hundreds of businesses called for an urgent crackdown on their "wild west" actions.

A new investigation has revealed that drivers of pedicabs - also known as rickshaws - are being paid tips by prostitutes for taking passengers to brothels for sex.

The practice was exposed by an undercover filmmaker who was asked by two male customers to take them to a brothel in Soho while he posed as a rickshaw driver for ten days during the summer.

After the passengers emerged, having each paid £50 for sex, the driver is seen being handed a £10 note for bringing in the business by one of the prostitutes who said: ”That’s what you get babe.”

The filmmaker, who does not want to be identified because he is concerned about reprisals from the rickshaw drivers, said it was common for “backhanders” to be paid for riders who brought punters to strip clubs, bars and brothels.

The seven minute film, commissioned by a group of businesses including the Hippodrome, also shows:

The bosses of department stores Liberty and Fortnum & Mason, the five star Ritz Hotel, the Delfont Mackintosh theatre chain and Hippodrome Casino are among signatories to a letter to the Standard published today calling for tough new rules on pedicabs.

They want to speed up plans for legislation that would allow London transport chiefs to start tough regulation of the estimated 1500 often uninsured pedicabs plying for trade on the streets of central London.

The letter said: “We firmly believe pedicabs harm London’s international reputation and need to be regulated without further delay.”

The film-maker hired his rickshaw in an underground garage for £100 down payment and £60 a week rent. He filmed the footage with a Go-Pro camera strapped to his chest.

He told the Standard: ”Not all pedicab drivers are bad, there are lots of very responsible ones but there are some rotten apples.

“Many of the drivers said they want regulation because that would bring a measure of control and allow people to have some safe fun but without that it is human nature for things to go a bit haywire.”

An anomaly in the law means that pedicabs are classified as unlicensed “stage carriages” rather than licensed “hackney carriages” under Section 4 of the Metropolitan Public Carriage Act 1869.

This makes it hard for Transport for London or the Metropolitan Police to control their fares, enforce safety standards or require drivers to take out insurance.

Transport minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon has said in a letter to the Regulate Pedicabs Coalition that his officials are working on introducing legislation “in the next year.”

But the business leaders, who include heads of groups such as Heart of London Business Alliance, the London Chinatown Chinese Association, and the Leicester Square Association, said the timetable is too long.

The letter says: “If the Government takes a year to table clauses in Parliament, it could be two years or longer before licenses are introduced. That is two years in which more passengers’ lives would be at risk.

“Now that a consensus exists on pedicabs, we urge the government to bring forward legislation to this autumn.”

Simon Thomas, owner of the Hippodrome casino on Leicester Square, said: ”It is only a matter of time before someone is killed by being thrown out of a rickshaw into the path of something heavier.”