The PSP announced this Saturday that it had seized 2808 euros from a man posing as a passenger carrier at Lisbon Airport, where it has already recorded more than 400 offences against fake TVDE drivers and taxi drivers this year.
In a statement, the PSP’s Lisbon Metropolitan Command pointed out that this phenomenon, which exists in all European airports, consists of luring potential clients for transport at lower prices, by suspects who claim to be legally qualified professionals to carry out the transport, within the TVDE platform or the lisbon airport taxi service, although in reality they are not duly accredited for this purpose.
As part of the fight against this illegal activity, on Thursday 2808 euros were seized for unauthorised commercial activity from a 41-year-old man while he was picking up passengers at Humberto Delgado Airport.
The police said that in the first four months of this year alone, more than 400 of these offences were recorded at Lisbon Airport. “With regard to administrative offences, in 2023, at Humberto Delgado Airport alone, almost a thousand offences were reported and referred to the competent authority, with fines totalling one million euros,” it added.
The PSP also said that, in addition to administrative offences, these operations have also detected criminal phenomena associated with this activity, which have led to arrests and/or the constitution of defendants and the seizure of “several vehicles and large sums of money”.
“In some situations, at the destination, [passengers] are confronted with amounts completely different from those agreed, and are victims of fraud or extortion, practices that constitute a criminal offence,” the police emphasised.
The PSP also emphasised that taxis at Humberto Delgado Airport are taken exclusively in the arrivals hall and TVDEs are taken in the car park itself and always via a platform (in both cases, never at the terminal).