A taxi driver has been sacked after 'faking a heart attack' in order to avoid taking a short fare.
Footage has been released showing the driver appearing to take ill before setting off with a passenger outside Sydney Airport.
Advert
In the short clip, the driver can be seen clutching his chest and falling to the ground, telling the customer that he is unable to take her to the suburb of Annandale.
According to the woman who filmed the video, the anonymous driver had claimed to have been waiting at the airport for two hours and was upset by the 'short fare'.
He can be heard saying in the clip: "I'm not driving ma'am, I'm not driving. My condition is not well."
Stunned by his apparent theatrics, the woman then says: "You're going to have a brilliant, brilliant Oscar award for this."
Advert
The disgruntled passenger sent her footage into news programme A Current Affair.
Speaking to the show, 13cabs chief operating officer Stuart Overell confirmed the driver's log had matched the woman's claims and he was sacked.
He said: "[The driver] should go and get a career in acting, because cab driving is not in his future."
Advert
Nick Abrahim, deputy CEO of New South Wales Taxi Council, said drivers have a duty to accept fares, no matter the destination.
But there is one condition, he added: "If a driver is finishing or terminating their shift and a passenger may not be going in the direction of where that driver may be heading towards ending their shift."
Speaking to Nine News, Ross Raslan from Sydney Taxis said there are rules in place to protect drivers and passengers, should either of them fall ill.
Advert
He said: "I can call the radio room and ask them to dispatch an ambulance to me and make sure at the same time the passenger in the car with me gets looked after going forward.
"I wouldn't just leave them on the side of the road."
In the UK, meanwhile, a taxi driver is facing a huge legal bill after he lost a bitter dispute over a passenger's will.
According to The Mirror, thirty-four-year-old Dean Hughes, a taxi driver in Eastbourne, said the late Gary Mendez had agreed to leave him 'everything' because Hughes would take him to the pub in his taxi when other drivers refused because of his weight.
Advert
'Everything' - in this case - included a £160,000 house that Mendez shared with his partner.
Mendez signed the will over a pint in a pub a matter of months before he died. A judge has now declared the document void.
Featured Image Credit: A Current Affair