Yesterday, the Central Traffic Court sentenced taxi driver Eyal Siman Tov, who was convicted of charging exorbitant fares to passengers, including tourists. In one case exposed by Globes in February 2022, a Greek tourist paid NIS 700 for a ride from Ben Gurion Airport to Rehovot, a distance of about 24 kilometers by road. The current daytime fare for the trip is about NIS 110.
In a plea deal, Siman Tov admitted to six instances of price gouging in 2021 and 2022, and Judge Idan Snir sentenced him to a fine of NIS 20,000, NIS 300 compensation for each complainant, a two-month driving ban suspended for two years, and a pledge not to commit similar crimes for three years.
The driver was convicted of waiting at the terminal at Ben Gurion Airport for tourists or non-Hebrew speakers, demanding exorbitant fares, and lying about the value of the bills he was given in exchange for payment.
The judge said that this crime has an economic dimension, and even many security implications. These are crimes characterized by defrauding passengers, which harms the public’s confidence in public transportation services, and constitutes a breach of the duties imposed on taxi drivers.
“A taxi driver approached me and asked where I was going,” the Greek tourist told Globes in February 2022. “I explained that I had to go to the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. I asked him how much the trip would cost and he said between 200 and 250 shekels. I was sure he was talking about the price in shekels. I asked him several times and I never imagined he meant the price in euros.”
At the end of the trip, the driver showed him that the meter showed a price of 689 shekels. “My jaw dropped. I was so upset. I asked him ten times if he was sure that was the price, that maybe there was a mistake, but he said no. I paid him 700 shekels in cash, and he said he didn’t have change to give me. In the end, he gave me back a shekel coin and another ten agorot coin and said it was ten shekels. He said the fare was different now because of the Covid pandemic.”
Following the report, the Crime Prevention and Service Quality Inspection Unit at Ben Gurion Airport was able to track down the driver, who returned the tourist 400 shekels.
The indictment describes the method the taxi driver used to collect money. He would tell passengers that they had given him a low-value bill, and they would believe him and give him a high-value bill. Siman Tov was convicted of failing to operate a taximeter, illegally collecting fares, conduct unbecoming of a passenger under the Transportation Act, and inciting passengers to travel by taxi. He was found to have acted “systematically, deceptively, fraudulently, and continuously.”
In one case, Siman Tov took a woman from the airport to Ramat Gan for NIS 300 and another €50. At the end of the trip, she gave him a NIS 200 bill. He exchanged it for a NIS 20 bill, claiming she had given it to him. In response, the passenger handed him a NIS 100 bill. In another case, he took a woman to Ashkelon and took NIS 850 from her, claiming she had given him NIS 20 bills instead of NIS 200.
The pattern was repeated, with a woman who was being driven by Siman Tov to Ashdod paying NIS 498. The passenger gave him two $100 bills, and he claimed she gave him two $1 bills, and she gave him two more $100 bills, and he again claimed that one of the bills was a $1 bill.
“My client chose to plead guilty to the charges in a reduced plea deal consisting of only suspended sentences and a fine, so as not to risk having his driver’s license, which he uses to make a living as a taxi driver, revoked,” attorney Idan Gaspan, who represented Siman Tov, said in response to the verdict.
This article was published in Globes, Israeli Business News – en.globes.co.il – on September 12, 2024.
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.