A taxi driver was fined 2,000 baht and forced to attend a three-hour course of good public service by the Land Transport Department for mocking a female passenger as ugly and ordering her and her boyfriend out of his car.

The incident took place in front of JJ Green market on Sunday night and was recorded by one of the two passengers using his smart phone. The video clip was live-streamed on the Facebook page of Pinpin Parinya which received over 110,000 views.

Pinpin Parinya began his live-streaming by saying how many taxies they had to hail before they could get one. The first taxi refused to take them, but the second accepted both of them.

Having boarded the taxi, the woman lamented that she hailed several taxis but none agreed to accept her. Then the cabbie interjected: “Because you are ugly, so none of them accepted you!”. And he giggled.

That offensive remark disappointed Pinpin Parinya who blurted: “Why you said that?”

Then the two were chased out of the car and a quarrel broke out followed by a brief fistfight.

Later on, the two lodged a complaint with passengers’ protection call centre at 1584. The cabbie, identified as Somsak Sansak, was detected on Monday and summoned to the inspection division of the Land Transport Department.

Somsak was faulted for using impolite language with a passenger and for failing to take passengers to their destination. He was fined 2,000 baht, the highest fine permissible, and subjected to three hours of lecture on good service to passengers.

Cabbie fined 2,000 baht for mocking a passenger ugly - Thai PBS English News