Two passengers, taken on a 43,000-mile cab journey that lasted 15 months, have been confidently told the ordeal was 'the quickest way to get to Covent Garden from where you were.' by their driver, Paul Archer.
The trek, which started when the two friends hailed the taxi in Holborn, last February, has cost the pair £258,642: 4,310,600% more than the 'about £6' they were quoted before they climbed in and the doors were locked.
'Johno and I had just finished an offsite meeting in Chancery Lane and were supposed to be joining some colleagues in Covent Garden for a couple of drinks.' said Leigh Purnell, one of the exhausted passengers.
'We knew it was close, but didn’t fancy walking it. Neither of us knows London that well, you see. In hindsight, that's something we probably shouldn’t have disclosed to the driver.' he added.
'We had suspicions that something was awry about six months into the journey when our concerns about all the tuk tuks and elephants were dismissively blamed on 'them temp'ry roadworks in Russell Square'. For a while, I was actually beginning to see his point about immigration. That was until my iPhone showed we were actually in Delhi.'
Mr Archer, however, is adamant that the route he took was the shortest one if you want to get from Holborn to Covent Garden at that time of day.
'They was lucky I was around if you ask me. I was about to clock off as I'd just done a mammoth fare taking some tourists on a shortcut from St Paul's to Farringdon via Heathrow.'
'I could have taken them the 'traditional route', sure... if they wanted catch all the traffic that feeds up from the Strand after 4:30.'
Crap - another meeting to go into. Probably won't be able to finish this. Hey ho, am not sure the original story has become well known enough for it to be used anyway.
