According to information, a former New York City taxi driver whose license was revoked over ten years ago has been impersonating a cab driver while driving his small yellow Toyota.
According to public records, George Caraballo has committed numerous infractions, and the municipal Taxi and Limousine Commission is currently attempting to permanently take his 2013 tiny Prius.
The TLC filed a civil forfeiture complaint on Thursday, alleging that Caraballo has been dinged twice by the city for pretending to be an official yellow medallion driver in the past six months.
According to the Manhattan Supreme Court document, Caraballo’s second infraction really occurred just two weeks after the hacker entered a guilty plea to the first.
According to the lawsuit, he was first observed by a TLC inspector in November when he drove his yellow hybrid hatchback to Manhattan to pick up a passenger who was hailing for a $26 journey.
Unfortunately for Caraballo, the $1,500 fine he received that evening for “operating for hire a vehicle that is not licensed by TLC” overshadowed his fee.
According to the lawsuit, the fake taxi driver was back at it just 15 days after admitting to the initial infraction during an administrative hearing in March.
According to the lawsuit, Caraballo picked up a party of four persons on April 8 for a fee of $18 in front of the famous New Yorker Hotel near Penn Station while a TLC inspector was watching.
According to the lawsuit, the TLC seized the fake cab right away.
Caraballo entered a guilty plea once more at his second appearance before the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings.
However, according to documents, a TLC lawyer contended that the commission ought to keep Caraballo’s vehicle while the city pursues its civil forfeiture action against him in order to permanently seize the fake taxi.
In 2020, Caraballo reportedly performed the same stunt with a different vehicle, which the TLC lawyer described as “evidence of the respondent’s flagrant disregard for the rules” and referred to as a “danger to the public.”
The Prius is dressed up as a yellow cab since it works legally as a taxi in Rockland County, according to his attorney, Joseph Scifo, a non-lawyer who has represented livery drivers in administrative court for more than 40 years.
After finding that the TLC had not demonstrated that retaining Caraballo’s vehicle was “necessary to protect the public,” hearing officer Patricia Cardoso ordered that he return the vehicle after paying a $2,000 fine, which he has since done, according to a TLC representative on Friday.
According to the spokeswoman, Caraballo’s previous license was revoked in 2013.
Caraballo may still lose it as the TLC’s case develops, even though the car has been released for the time being.
The TLC claimed in its lawsuit that the Prius is “subject to forfeiture” since he pretended to be a phony taxi “on two separate occasions within 36 months, and the subject vehicle was used in the commission of both offenses.”
Caraballo’s driver’s license indicates a Rockland County home, approximately 40 miles north of Manhattan, according to the summons; nevertheless, his car registration indicates a Yorkville apartment.
“You got the wrong person,” claimed a shirtless man who identified himself as George Caraballo.
The purportedly fake Caraballo claimed to be a retired man who had never driven a taxi and to have never owned a Toyota Prius.
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The inquisitive Caraballo asked about the nature of the action and civil forfeiture notwithstanding his denials.
Scifo told that he had some advise even though he wasn’t sure if the man was his client or if the real Caraballo lived in Rockland County.
“There’s a lot of guys who are in the practice of bringing in cars from outside the city to earn extra money,” he stated.
“Stop. You will be fined. You are breaking the law.”
