SAVAS AVCI: Charged family $442.54 (
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First, he charges more than $400 for a 10-minute ride, then he claims he’s the victim!
Pedicab driver Savas Avci took the prize for gall yesterday when he testified at a city administrative hearing that he broke just one regulation by billing a family of four $442.54 for a 14-block ride in Midtown last year.
The $100-per-person minimum printed in small type on his rate card went unnoticed by the Texas tourists.
“I am the victim,” Avci griped. “My name was in the paper. I am the victim.”
Facing 27 charges, he admitted to the most obvious one — loading four people into his cab when the limit set by the Department of Consumer Affairs is three.
But Avci didn’t own up to any other wrongdoing, not even when confronted with records of the sales tax he illegally tacked onto the rates of at least 15 unsuspecting customers.
For the Texas family, that brought their initial $406 tab up to an even more outrageous $442.54.
“I did not know it was illegal until I read about it in The Post,” said Avci, referring to a story last August exposing his practices.
He insisted that the tax was added automatically by his credit-card processor and that it was returned to his customers and, in two instances, to the state.
Regarding the charge that he had filed a license-renewal application in March without listing the six summonses he had accumulated since starting his pedicab career in October 2011, Avci had another excuse — poor English.
“I didn’t know what ‘criminal’ and ‘offense’ meant,” he said. “My English is not so good then. I asked for help but was confused.”
But the Turkish immigrant, whose license has not been renewed, got through yesterday’s 2 1/2-hour hearing without an interpreter.
The other charges Avci face include sales-tax violations and not including his contact info on receipts.
He couldn’t be slapped for his ridiculous rates because pedicab operators can charge what they want as long as the fees are posted.
Brenda Rodriguez, the mother whose family was hit with the $442.54 bill, told The Post last year that she was never told of the $100-per-person minimum.
Consumer Affairs lawyer Nicholas Minella demanded Avci be booted from the industry.
“Mistake and ignorance are not an excuse under the law,” he said.
But Avci’s attorney, David Shachter, said the charges against his client were not “of such a serious nature to justify losing his license.”
A ruling on the charges is expected within 30 days.