Court orders over one year in jail for Turkish taxi driver for overcharging Saudi tourists

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul court has ordered one year and three months in jail for a taxi driver who gouged Saudi tourists after extending their journey.

The taxi driver, Enver Canik, was found guilty on charges of “attempted aggravated fraud.”

But the court postponed Canik’s sentence for five years because, although he attempted to, did not take the passengers’ money.

Canik denied the claims during his hearing, saying that the reason he extended the journey was due to him being confused because the customers “talked a lot.”

“I did not knowingly and willingly cheat anyone. I did not try to get a lot of money. I was confused because of how much they talked. I do not accept the charges. I did not do anything like that,” Canik said.

Canik said he has been living in Istanbul for 25 years and working as a taxi driver for four years.

Back in Sept. 24, 2017, three Saudi Arabian tourists had hailed the taxi in the Karaköy neighborhood on Istanbul’s European side to go to Sabiha Gökçen Airport, which is on the Asian side.

The taxi reportedly crossed to the Asian side and returned to the European side twice, carrying the customers who wanted to get to the airport to take a flight back to Saudi Arabia.

According to the prosecutors’ indictment, the taxi driver realized that the Saudi tourists were not familiar with Istanbul so took them over the Bosphorus Strait to the Asian side via the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which is over a hundred kilometers away from the city center, before returning to the European side again. He then further extended the trip by taking a longer route to the airport.

The taxi driver caused the Saudi tourists to miss their flight and overcharged them for a trip that would’ve normally cost a lot less than what they were charged.

Prosecutors are now demanding a jail sentence of between three and 10 years for the driver, after the tourists decided to file a lawsuit against the driver.