A Dublin taxi driver has been ordered to pay €1,050 for over-charging two Christmas shoppers who had to hand over €47 for a €15 fare.
Séamus Goslin (70) from Balfe Road in Walkinstown pleaded guilty at Dublin District Court on Monday to breaching the Taxi Regulation Act.
Stephen Ryan, a compliance officer with the National Transport Authority, told Judge John O'Neill that on a date last December, two customers had used the Halo app to get a taxi from the city-centre to Barrow Street after they had been shopping at Smyth's toy store.
Goslin picked up the man and woman with their boxes of toys at Jervis Street and took them to a company office at Barrow Street.
Mr Ryan said he gave them two receipts, one for €17 and another signed one for €47, which Goslin claimed was a “carriage charge” for the boxes the two passengers brought with them.
Mr Ryan said that in the past taxis were allowed a “luggage charge, but that is gone”. He carried out “two test runs” of the same route and found that the fare should have come to approximately €15.
The court heard Goslin has been driving a taxi for the past 10 years, has no prior convictions and has not come to further attention. Defence counsel said he was embarrassed, has learned a “salutary lesson”, and wanted to avoid a conviction.
Counsel asked the court to note the driver had been asked to carry a large amount of luggage.
Judge O’Neill noted the man had co-operated with the investigation and had given the passengers receipts and was not trying to “pull the wool over their eyes”.
He ordered him to pay €250 to the Simon Community along with €800 in prosecution costs. He adjourned the case until a date in December and said that if the money is not paid, a conviction will be recorded with a €500 fine on top of the order to pay costs.