Dublin Taxi driver avoids jail term

A taxi driver, who triple charged two Christmas shoppers on a €15 fare, has been spared a criminal conviction.

Seamus Goslin, aged 70, from Balfe Road, Walkinstown, Dublin, pleaded guilty in November at Dublin District Court to breaching the Taxi Regulation Act after he charged the passengers €45 for the short trip.

Judge John O’Neill had adjourned the case until yesterday to see if the taxi-driver would give €250 to the Simon Community along with paying €800 in prosecution costs. After he was furnished with receipts he applied the Probation Act.

Stephen Ryan, a compliance officer with the National Transport Authority, had told Judge O’Neill that on a date last December, two customers had used the Hailo app to get a taxi from the city centre to Barrow St.

Goslin picked up the man and woman with their boxes of toys, at Jervis St and took them to a company office at Barrow St. 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. He told the NTA officer it was a “courier job”. He also claimed it was just before Christmas and a “very busy time”.

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 about €15.

The court heard Goslin has been driving a taxi for 10 years, has no prior convictions and has not come to further attention.

Counsel defending had said he was embarrassed, has learned a “salutary lesson” and wanted to avoid a conviction.