Brit Expats Caught Running Illegal Taxi Service At Malaga Airport

British expats have been caught running a pirate taxi scheme in Malaga.

Local police in Malaga are now monitoring Malaga Airport’s arrivals exit gates in an attempt to stop enterprising British expats from running their own illegal taxi service. Last month, one Briton was arrested and given a large fine for offering ‘lifts’ to hotels in the popular holiday resort for a cash payment. The offender attempted to escape when the Spanish boys in blue caught him picking up a customer for a trip to Gibraltar.

On the same day, three Spanish and another British driver were nabbed and fined but not arrested, and later in the same week four more including another British expat felt the long arm of Spanish law. The Brit initially pretended his passengers were personal friends arriving on holiday, but his annoyed clients confirmed they’d paid €70 for a trip to Puerto Bahun, believing the driver was the owner of a legal taxi. Finally, another Spaniard and two Hungarians were caught operating the same scam.

All the duped passengers received their money back, and all the drivers are now being charged with fraud as well as having their cars impounded under a €1,380 sanction, reduced to €966 if it’s paid off within a month. The police crackdown followed numerous complaints from legally operating taxi drivers that expat freelancers were stealing potential customers and undercutting their prices. Since the arrests, a team of Spanish police, two in plain clothes and two in uniform, are monitoring the airport’s arrivals area for similar attempts and are especially active during peak arrivals periods.