Garda and the Taxi Industry

Before Taxi Deregulation when there was money to be made, the taxi industry was seen as a nice little investment for some members of the Garda. Some bought licences or rented them and had guys on welfare driving them. In some situation the PSV officer, or to the lay man the police officer in change of standards in the local taxi industry was regulary the owner of a taxi with a guy defrauding the state of welfare driving it for him.
Were not talking about millions of years ago, in fact less than ten years ago. Usually on retirement the Police officer ended up driving it himself. Even after deregulation some Garda purchased licenses and used some of their pals home adesses to avoid being linked to the plate, even using some very dodgy taxi drivers to aid them in this fraud. So as much as the Garda like to look down their noses at taxi drivers, there are close links there.