Driver fined Dh55,000 for illegal transport

Sharjah transport authorities fined a Moroccan driver Dh55,000 for transporting passengers from the taxi stand many times although he is not authorized to use his car for such purposes, press reports said on Thursday. 

But the driver, Ayoub Bahmad, denied he had transported passengers, saying those seen by Sharjah transport inspectors were his friends and calling on the company to cancel the fines and compensate him for the confiscation of his vehicle in Dubai. 

Bahmad said he was driving in Dubai when police stopped him and impounded his car on the grounds he had piled up fine of Dh55,000 for illegal passenger transport. 

Quoted by the Arabic language daily Emirat Alyoum, an official at the Sharjah Public Transport Corporation said Bahmad was seen collecting passengers five times and that the inspectors were convinced he was illegally transporting them because they were of different nationalities, rebuffing his claims that they were friends. 

“The inspector tried every time to stop him to check the passengers and see whether they paid him but he refused to stop,” said Mohammed Karam, director of the penalties section at the Corporation. “He was fined in his absence Dh10,000 for each time.”

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