File photo.
An Athens taxi driver has been arrested and faces criminal charges of robbery for allegedly using threats of violence to force a family of tourists to pay him more than ten times the legal airport fare, authorities said Tuesday.
A police statement said the suspect was located and taken into custody early Tuesday, nearly two weeks after the tourists lodged a complaint against him with the Syntagma Square precinct.
It said the 38-year-old man picked up the family at Athens airport on the night of August 13 and drove them to a hotel in the city center – for which the legal fare would have been €55.
The suspect allegedly demanded €600, and extracted it following “repeated threats of violence and having terrorised the family” before he allowed them to get out with their luggage. The suspect was identified with the use of digital data, the police statement said.
