Worst N.Y. Cabbie on Way to Turkey

The man whose shameful taxi etiquette earned him the title of worst cabdriver in the city is being deported to Turkey.

Driver Vehbi Gunduz was placed in the federal detention center and will be returned to his native country soon, Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Charles Troy told the New York Post in a story published this morning..

An immigration judge had ordered Gunduz to leave the country in 1985, but Gunduz kept appealing until last month, when he lost his case, Troy said.

It wasn’t his driving record that got him in trouble, though. Gunduz must leave because when he entered the United States he concealed a drug conviction in Italy for which he served more than a year in prison, Troy said.

Gunduz began driving a cab in 1985. In five years, he was hit with 88 summonses and 199 violations.

He was cited for driving recklessly, bullying passengers, harassing dispatchers, overcharging, assaulting a taxi inspector and dumping riders’ luggage on an airport road because the passengers only wanted to go from one terminal to another.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission, which labeled him “the worst,” took away Gunduz’s license in October when the agency set limits on the number of violations a driver can commit before having his license suspended.