A former Uber driver‚ accused of robbing‚ kidnapping and raping his passengers will spend Christmas in jail.

The 25-year-old along with three of his alleged accomplices appeared in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday where they all dropped their bail bids.

Elias Mankgane‚ Daniel Maswikaneng‚ Themba Mkwanazi and Bangu Sikosana were remanded in police custody until their matter appears in court again on February 6.

The four men face charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances‚ multiple rapes and kidnapping.

The men allegedly went on an spree attacking Uber passengers around Johannesburg this year.

In one incident a complainant was allegedly robbed of about R5‚000 and raped in a veld after getting into the Uber taxi she had called to collect her from Montecasino in Fourways.

The complainants’ lawyer Ulrich Roux said the men abandoned bail in fears that their stories will not add up in court.

Roux said: “We are happy that the men are not somewhere out there but they are in police custody and will not be getting bail. All four of them are in custody and we will make sure that justice for the victims prevail.”

The attacks were carried out using the same modus operandi. The complainants described that upon entering the taxi‚ two men jumped from the boot through a back seat and started attacking them.

The men kidnapped the passengers‚ robbed and raped some of the victims.

The Uber driver previously denied that he was involved in any of the attacks‚ saying he may have driven the vehicle but knows nothing of the attacks on the alleged victims.

“I was the driver of the motor vehicle in which the complainants allegedly travelled in‚” he said in a sworn statement adding that he does not know the complainants.

The matter was postponed to February 6 for further investigations and for the Directorate of Public Prosecutions to decide on whether the matter should be transferred to a high court due to its seriousness or continue in the magistrate’s court.