Cork taxi driver in court over refusing card payments agrees to provide card payment device

A taxi driver who was at risk of losing his taxi licence for refusing to accept card payments will have a SumUp card payment device available to customers within a week.

William Wyse gave that undertaking as Judge Mary Dorgan adjourned the case in relation to his licence until December 6 at Cork District Court.

Mr Wyse said he had to comply with the law and he would provide a SumUp device for customers to pay by card. 

Many other taxi drivers use such technology for this purpose.

Judge Dorgan said the state was issuing fixed penalty notices on William Wyse of Onslow Gardens, Commons Road, where there were complaints of him not accepting card payments in his taxi. 

But the judge questioned the proportionality of the state’s response in going further and revoking the taxi driver’s licence as well.

The judge adjourned the case to see if the matter could be resolved without taking the licence from a man who has been in the taxi trade for 42 years.

While the judge said that anybody could take the view that they did not want to have a bank account, the regulations required taxi drivers to take card payments. 

The judge said she presumed the rational behind the regulations was to allow for people to get home safely by tapping their payment when they had run out of cash late at night.

Garda Conor McDermot said the regulations required that taxi drivers would accept payment by card and added: “We have tried everything we can to try to get Mr Wyse to comply with the regulations.”

Mr Wyse said that since the financial crash he had no bank account, post office account or credit union account since 2010.

Among his arguments against taking card payments he said there was discrimination against taxis because in some other modes of public transport cash payments were allowed and bank card payments were not.

The National Transport Authority previously stated: “It is a legal requirement for each taxi to have a functioning cashless payment device and for drivers to accept cashless payments. The law was introduced on September 1 2022.”