Harry Richard has been driving a cab for more than 25 years and never thought he would start his weekend off in a pair of handcuffs.

He says he didn’t have any reason to believe the man he picked up Friday night in Halifax was the suspect in a string of robberies.

“He didn’t get any food at McDonald’s,” Richard explains. “Maybe he went in there and it was too busy, I don’t know. So he went into the Chebucto Needs and that’s where it all unfolded.”

It was there that Richard’s fare was arrested.

The taxi driver says it was their fifth stop of the night, and though he says he didn’t know it, the man in the cab had allegedly committed two robberies and attempted three more.

Richard says he drove him to all those locations and says he was also arrested and taken to the police station.

“They said I’m an accessory to robbery,” he explains. “They pushed me against the car, ‘put your hands behind your back,’ and they handcuffed me using quite a bit of strength.”

Richard says it’s not his job to find out what his fares are doing while he’s driving them around.

“I have no idea why they arrested me,” he adds. “They’re saying I was involved. How can I be involved when I’m doing my job?”

“The cab driver was with that party during several of those events and that’s why he was arrested,” explains Halifax Regional Police Sgt. J.D. McKinnon.

Richard says he estimates he lost up to $300 in missed fares during the busiest part of the night while he was in police custody.

“It’s unfortunate that he was delayed in the end,” says Sgt. McKinnon. “But again, officers had to make sure that they had all the facts.”

Police say Richard was held until investigators could determine he was not involved.

Given that there were five crime scenes, police say they worked quickly.

“He co-operated and gave them what they wanted to know,” explains Sgt. McKinnon. “They collaborated and he was let go.”

Other cab drivers in the city think taxi drivers need to be on alert for suspicious activity, for their own safety.

“If I found myself in that position,” says taxi driver Don Roach. “After the second time, if I thought there was something suspicious, I’d just drive away from the call.”

“I have had somebody before who looked clearly like they were looking to buy some drugs and I just told them, this is where it stops,” adds taxi driver Rami Albatal.

But Richard maintains he was only doing his job.

“I don’t profile anybody as they’re getting in my cab."

He says he feels Halifax police were heavy-handed in his arrest.

Sgt. McKinnon says Richard can file a formal complaint if he feels he was mistreated by the police.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Sarah Ritchie.