The city’s crackdown on illegal cabbies is so out of control that agents are busting legitimate, high-priced chauffeurs in their overzealous round-up, The Post has learned.
In one instance, Taxi and Limousine Commission officers targeted the driver for the emir of Qatar.
“Some captains and chiefs, to appease management’s quest for numbers, will encourage the seizing of private chauffeurs — even if it means illegally seizing a car they know shouldn’t be seized,” a frustrated source told The Post.
“They’re of the mindset, ‘Let them fight in court, we need the numbers. Give it a shot,'” the source said.
Qatar embassy worker Ibrahim Senturk had just picked up the son of his boss, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and a man with him on the Upper East Side on Sept. 2 when he was pulled over, according to records of TLC tribunal hearings obtained by The Post.
“They were so mean,” recalled Senturk, who has a chauffeur’s license and worked for the embassy at the time. “They cheat people. I was insulted. They fined me $2,000.”
Senturk — who had planned to drive the men to an 11th Avenue gym — was accused of illegally working as a hack and had his car seized.
Senturk went to court for the summons in October, and an administrative judge immediately dismissed the case.
“He was merely following orders from his boss to take them to the gym and back,” the judge chided the TLC.
A driver for a Walgreens executive also was recently stopped and had his car seized — even though the agents knew he was legit, according to an audio recording of a later meeting between a TLC captain and other officers.
“He’s on salary at Walgreens,” one officer said of the driver. “He has his paperwork with him whenever he goes to the airport.”
Sources said inspectors have been threatened with lost overtime and tour changes if they don’t seize enough cars.
TLC Commissioner Meera Joshi has since launched an internal review of enforcement and ordered refresher training on seizures after taking over this year, officials said.
TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg said the situations are not always as they may appear to an inspector.
“While the vast majority of cases, more than 80 percent, are found guilty at hearing, the fact that there are a certain number of cases that are dismissed means the system is a fair one,” he said.
Those dismissed cases include one involving Giants receiver Mario Manningham.
Last fall, Manningham’s friend had his car seized after driving him to LaGuardia Airport, sources said.
The pal told officers he doesn’t drive for a living but that Manningham — who is practicing again with the Giants after spending the last two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers — gave him $100 for taking him to the airport.
“He testified he was proud when the TLC inspectors came over because he wanted to show off his passenger,” court papers state.
The judge threw out the summons, since the player’s friend drove him as a favor.
Manningham, who played his first four seasons with the Giants, culminating in the Super Bowl XLVI win in 2012, also got lucky last month when another driver who didn’t have a TLC license picked him up.
He and the driver were stopped at LaGuardia but higher-ups let them go because Manningham is an NFL player, according to the recording.