Dubai: While officials are vigilant about illegal taxicabs, there are also instances were residents are wrongly fined. But the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) revokes the fines if it is proven that a motorist was erroneously sanctioned.
Recently, a Dubai resident was wrongly fined Dh5,000 for allegedly running an illegal cab service after RTA inspectors misunderstood him. The fine was waived off later.
“By wrongly fining me, RTA insulted me, leaving me mentally depressed,” Mohammad Shanid, who works as an accountant with a private firm, told Gulf News.
He was fined as he was picking up African visitors from the airport, who are friends of the owner of his company.
Shanid's employer informed him that his business partners will be visiting Dubai to buy some machineries and asked him to arrange transit visa and hotel accommodation for them, in addition to picking them up from the airport and assisting them.
Insult
As he was about to drive off to the hotel from the airport, an RTA inspector asked him to pull over. “He showed me his ID and demanded my driving licence, vehicle registration card and labour card.”
“He asked me to remain in the car and took my guests outside and started asking how much you paid him and also said I am an illegal taxi driver. I was really shocked to hear this and I was insulted in public by calling me an illegal taxi driver,” Shanid said.
