Friday, 29 Mar 2024

Rickshaw rider charged £180 for three minutes – and now he's got a £1,000 fine

‘Nuisance’ pedicab drivers in central London have been slammed with record fines amid a council crackdown.

Five individuals have been charged a total of £5,682 at City of London Magistrates Court after reports of operators ‘regularly blocking pavements, playing loud music, and charging extortionate fares’.

A rider fined £1,018 for blasting music that caused annoyance is the same one who charged two people an eye-watering £180 for a three-minute ride back in February 2022 – ten times more than they agreed.

Meanwhile, another who repeatedly played excessively music from a loudspeaker was made an example of as he was told to pay up twice as much as others.

The group was ordered to pay between £684 and £2,019 each for fines, costs and victim surcharges.

It marks the largest fines to date following enforcement action by Westminster City Council, in partnership with Metropolitan Police, under the Control of Pollution Act 1974.

Hundreds of drivers have sparked serious accessibility issues in areas including Covent Garden, Soho, Leicester Square and Mayfair, it’s been claimed.

Councillor Aicha Less has blasted the pedicabs as ‘an unlicensed nuisance’.

‘We want people visiting the West End to have fun and to be safe’, she said.

‘The council will continue to work with the police to take action against antisocial pedicab drivers.’

More than 50 drivers have been reported for prosecutions in the last year, according to the council.

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