Paul Archer, Johno Ellison and Leigh Purnell in London after their epic taxi adventure

Three friends have become the first to circumnavigate the globe in a black cab – running up the equivalent of an £80,000 meter fare!

Paul Archer, Johno Ellison and Leigh Purnell spent 15 months on their record-breaking journey around the world.

They arrived back at Folkestone in Kent from where the hardy ‘Hannah’ – their weather-beaten, 20-year-old K-reg black cab - trundled the remaining 70 miles up the M20 to a homecoming reception of fellow cabbies on the cobbled piazza of London’s Covent Garden, where their extraordinary trip began in February, 2011.

The trio – who have raised more than £20,000 for charity – clocked over 43,000 miles across four continents and 50 different countries.

Along the way they smashed world records for the longest ever journey by taxi (beating the record set in 1991), the first circumnavigation of the globe in a black cab and the world’s highest taxi journey (the crew reached Mount Everest’s base camp in the cab, some 5,300 metres above sea-level).

Their remarkable journey saw them negotiate herds of Armenian sheep, get arrested in Moscow and even detained by the Iranian secret police where Paul was subsequently deported as a suspected spy.

They even got stuck on the border of Moldova with the wrong visa but managed to negotiate their way into the country as one of their friends’ mums knew the president.

Five per cent of this monster taxi bill will be footed by Get Taxi and donated to the British Red Cross as part of the It’s On The Meter expedition.

The trip, intended originally as a London to Sydney excursion, saw the lads successfully raise £15,000; £5,000 short of their ultimate goal.

To make up for the shortfall, Get Taxi is pledging £1 to the British Red Cross every time their cab app is downloaded via iTunes.

Watch the video on this page to see footage from the epic adventure.