If he was going to Loughton, why get the bus and then a taxi? Why not get the bus to Marble Arch and the central line all the way to Loughton? Or why not get a taxi all the way from his home direct there? What was the hold up from the bus before he got the taxi? I suppose if he didn’t have cash on him he could have booked an Uber and paid via that then needing physical money. Still would have been over £100 I’d say. The timings just don’t quite add up, it’s under an hours drive to Epping from Marble Arch, so if he was there around half past midnight, he would have needed to leave London around half 11. What was he doing for two hours between 9 and 11ish?