Taxi driver who scammed 270 passengers keeps his license despite Garda objections!

Brendan Burgess

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New licence for taxi driver who used remote to up fares

A taxi driver, who scammed passengers 270 times over a six-month period by secretly using a remote control to add €9 to fares, has been allowed have his licence back and work again.
www.rte.ie

A taxi driver, who scammed passengers 270 times over a six-month period by secretly using a remote control to add €9 to fares, has been allowed have his licence back and work again.

However, Mr Pidgeon came back to the district court today to appeal the licence revocation, which was opposed by gardaí from the carriage office.
 
"He has been off the road since March last year"

So has the majority of all Taxi Drivers in this period.

It must have taken some resources to bring a case of this kind to the courts. I think anyone continuing to use this type of scam on the public will be a lot less concerned if they get caught.
 
His was not the only conviction and it appears his cooperation helped with the investigation and conviction of other taxi drivers involved with the scam.

The article doesn't say how many others were convicted and are permanently out of the business.

from the RTE report
"He [judge] noted Mr Pidgeon had been a taxi driver for a long time and that his co-operation assisted the NTA’s large scale investigation. He has been off the road since March last year and "colloquially speaking he has done his time".

That tipped the balance in his favour, said Judge Brennan as he allowed the appeal."
 
Ridiculous judgement.
Rewarding criminality notwithstanding his cooperation with the investigation.
 
He is "for the birds"
Reminds me why I never take taxis anywhere.
I have walked to the airport in recent months.
 
The whole thing is like something from The Phoenix's "Bog Cuttings" section except not at all funny. Absolutely ridiculous decision by the court/judge.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
It must be very disheartening for the Garda who would find it very hard to detect such fraud.

It's also sending a message to taxi drivers. It's ok to defraud passengers as if you are caught, there will be no sanction.
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Or, more accurately, no sanction other than a fine and costs totalling €600, a degree of public humiliation and the small matter of having one's way of earning a livelihood withdrawn for what appears from the report to be 18 months.
 
Shirazman said:
Or, more accurately, no sanction other than a fine and costs totalling €600, a degree of public humiliation and the small matter of having one's way of earning a livelihood withdrawn for what appears from the report to be 18 months.
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Whatever about revocing his licence, he pocketed €2430 (assuming it was €9 for each of the 270 victims) so I don't understand why he was only ordered to pay back €600 here.
 
Shirazman said:
no sanction other than a fine and costs totalling €600, a degree of public humiliation and the small matter of having one's way of earning a livelihood withdrawn for what appears from the report to be 18 months.
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€600 vs €2,430 robbed. That is not a sanction.

public humiliation? like water off a duck's back

His livelihood was not withdrawn. He was not banned from working. Just from working as a taxi driver. And as it was during Covid, he probably got PUP.

Brendan
 
None of us is perfect. Although reading through tomes on this forum you'd get the opinion that many here think they're perfect. We all make mistakes and we can be defined by these. But, there's very little money involved in the larger scale of things. How many on here get 3rd level grants for their offspring by faking earnings? How many here do not pay their full income tax due? How many have faked expenses? How many have lied to get their parents into retirement homes at the expense of the tax payer? How many people on PUP deserve not to be there?

I bet answers to these questions would be disheartening to gardaí too.

OK! Let's stone the taxi driver; but only he who's without sin cast the first stone.
 
You left out the report discussed at length here about most of the 8 billion in pension tax breaks each year getting eaten up in charges,
if other Industries regulators went about their business as the taxi regulator did you would be surprised at what they might turn up,

I often find Judges have their ears closer to the ground and know what really is going on in Ireland and their judgments reflect this,

Did he get good Media training from the lep or a good solicitor anyway looks like he said all the right things, he could pack in the taxi work and set up a Media company with the lep and do Terry out of her job,
 
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Leper said:
None of us is perfect. Although reading through tomes on this forum you'd get the opinion that many here think they're perfect.
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I agree 100%. However, notwithstanding that, IMHO the ruling sends out the wrong message.
The accused was found guilty of fraudulently receiving monies from many customers and was not even ordered to pay it back.
Was fined a fraction of the total extorted and was allowed carry on in the same business.
Not good, no matter what way you look at it.

Shirazman said:
The reek of outraged sanctmoniousness from some smug, self-righteous commentators is nauseating.
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That is in abundance here on AAM and I have pointed it out many times.
But in this case you do not have to sanctimonious, smug or even self-righteous to condemn what the taxi drive is guilty of.
It is out and out theft !!
 
This is another case of mixed messages . If this was a scam he would have been punished. Because it is pure robbery he got away with it
 
vandriver said:
It's also disheartening for us honest taxi drivers,who don't go the long way or bump up fictitious extras who to some extent get tarred with the same brush.
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LS400 said:
I know I'll go to hell for having a little chuckle there. I apologise already..
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and so you should apologise. Totally out of order. I have come across many an honest taxi driver and one in particular that springs to mind was when he called me back to the taxi and handed me my purse which contained €125. As in all walks of life there are honest and dishonest.
 
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