People have today been urged to be vigilant when hailing a taxi, after gardaí arrested the driver of a ‘fake’ taxi in Dublin last night.
According to a series of tweets shared from the official Twitter account of An Garda Síochána, the driver was pulled over by traffic corps who grew suspicious after catching sight of the car’s fake roof sign and door stickers.
Upon stopping the vehicle, the gardaí discovered that the ‘taxi’ was in fact ‘bogus’ and didn’t carry either valid tax, insurance or NCT. They also realised that the driver had previously been disqualified.
Bogus Taxi stopped by DMR Traffic. Young female fare on board. Taxi was private car with fake roof sign/door 1 of 2 pic.twitter.com/RdWL7VglDB
— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) March 5, 2016
Bogus Taxi fake roof sign/door stickers. No tax/ins/nct. Driver arrested driving while disqualified Charged/court pic.twitter.com/Dhl0YpxgDx
— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) March 5, 2016
Re Bogus taxi.- If you have any doubt about your taxi use "driver check". https://t.co/nUBM4cmn1a
— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) March 5, 2016
Alarmingly, the driver did have a passenger in the back – a lone ‘young female’.
According to the tweets, the driver was arrested on the spot and has now been charged for the offences.
This report serves as a further reminder of the need to check that the vehicle you are getting into is, in fact, a registered taxi. If you are ever feeling uncertain, you can double-check the vehicle’s status with the National Transport Authority’s ‘Driver Check’ app; here is the link.
