Pedicab or rickshaw rivers in London currently set their own prices. Credit: Stephen CravenWikimedia commons
A tourist in London has found out the hard way that some unscrupulous pedicab, or rickshaw, drivers are operating in the UK capital.
The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was charged a massive £500 ($A865) for a 10-minute ride last month.
The victim said he hailed down the rickshaw from Mayfair for a trip to nearby Soho.
He admitted that he had a few drinks inside him and said the driver distracted him as he put in his card details.
"I'd had a few drinks, and I should have realised but I blindly put my card in the machine," he told The Local Democracy Reporting Service. "He was good at what he did."
The man said more needed to be done to licence pedicab drivers as currently they set their own prices.
"They obviously need to be regulated like taxis and they need to be licensed. At the end of the day, these guys could be anyone."
New laws are due to be introduced to crack down on what the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps called "the Wild West of pedicabs or rickshaws".
Westminster Council leader Adam Hug said unlicensed pedicabs "are a dangerous nuisance across the West End".
"We've had enough of drivers blocking pavements, annoying residents and businesses late at night, and charging extortionate fares to visitors."
It is not the first time that unlucky tourists have been forced to make huge payments to operators.
Two years ago, a 28-minute Uber trip across Coventry in the UK cost £606 ($A1048).
In 2018 in Paris, France, two unsuspecting tourists from Thailand were picked up by an unscrupulous taxi driver and charged an exorbitant fare.
They uploaded a video to YouTube showing their stand-off with a driver who charged them €247 ($A360) for the 45km journey from Charles de Gaulle airport into the city. The journey would normally cost €55. That driver was sentenced to eight months in prison.
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