Police in El Campello have caught six illegal taxi drivers, who face fines of up to €4,000, according to the town hall.
“With the arrival of the high tourism season and massive influx of visitors, illegal transport services operated in private cars are proliferating,” said a town hall spokesman.
“They are offering services to hotels and other towns; to tourism apartments from the airport; to the train station, and other passenger links.”
He said that El Campello local police, ‘along with forces in many other municipalities’, have activated a special plan to locate the ‘illegals’, which are providing ‘unfair competition to the legal services’.
Officers are setting up checkpoints, ‘above all at night’, to catch the unlicensed operators.
They have identified six drivers so far, with the passengers admitting that they contacted them ‘via telephone numbers they had found on websites or social media’.
The local police noted that the illegal taxis charge lower fees and do not provide a receipt for the journey.
They also have no insurance to cover a paying passenger.
