Theft by Uber driver

On 31/08/25 Sunday morning at 2:20 I booked a Uber for my son and his friends to go home. After they were dropped of the one boy noticed that he dropped his phone in the Uber vehicle. They called his phone and the driver answered the phone and were asked to return the phone they will even give him extra money for his time, on which he refused and told them he won’t. We all tried calling and complained on the Uber app but got a reply that the driver states that the phone was not there. We then tracked the phone and reported the phone on a security group and gave the vehicle details to the members in Centurion at the time. They managed to pull the driver off and asked him about the phone. He denied seeing the phone in his car. We then called the phone and it rang in a lady seated in the backs hand. She said it was her sister but they checked and answered the phone and it was then confirmed to be the phone dropped by the boys. The members took the phone and we collected it from them later on. This is theft as the driver answered the phone and then denied seeing the phone. I will ensure none of our friends nor family wil ever use Uber again.