Taxi driver collects 100 times the fare of an Olympic official
A Paris taxi driver is alleged to have charged a representative of the Olympic delegation €1,499 for a short ride that should have cost €14. The Qatari representative only wanted to travel from a central restaurant to the Eiffel Tower, according to the newspaper "Le Parisien". The 31-year-old paid the €14 displayed on the taximeter with a credit card, but later discovered that he had been charged over 100 times that amount. He then alerted the police, who are now investigating the incident for fraud.
Last year, a Paris taxi driver was arrested for repeatedly overcharging foreign tourists. In one case, he charged a Spaniard €1,540 instead of the €15.40 displayed on the meter. The driver claimed that the contactless payment function on his card reader was not working, and while the tourists entered their PINs, he covered the inflated amount he had entered into the device with his hand.
The investigation into the taxi driver's fraudulent activities also revealed instances where he overcharged other unsuspecting passengers. In one such incident, a Russian tourist was charged over €2,000 for a trip that should have cost only €20.
