Days after she claimed city bylaw officers blindsided her with $2,260 in fines for shuttling patients to medical appointments, a London woman admitted Thursday she was warned previously not to offer cab-like services that people took not just to hospital but to other locations.

“They warned me and did send me a letter,” the woman told The Free Press.

The warning and a letter were issued not for taking a patient to hospital but after she picked up a fare at a London mall, she admitted.

Her admission is an about-face to claims she made earlier this week.

On Monday and again on Tuesday, The Free Press asked the 58-year-old woman if bylaw officers had warned her before conducting what she described as a sting Feb 15. Each time, the woman said there had been no warning, and had she known she was violating a bylaw, she would have bought a licence that allows drivers to operate a vehicle for hire.

The woman, who requested anonymity because she collects disability benefits, also admitted for the first time that while she did drive patients to medical procedures, she also offered her car service to others who simply wanted to go elsewhere in the city, a practice she said she engaged in for the better part of three years before she was warned by bylaw officers to stop. She claims that after the warning, she limited her service to hospital patients.

Asked when she was warned, the woman said she did not recall. But a neighbour in her apartment building says she complained of being the victim of an earlier sting in November or December of 2017.

“I have used her ride service a number of times for non-medical reasons,” the neighbour wrote. “I worry that her story is intentionally misleading the public to believe she is a good Samaritan being victimized by an aggressive bylaw department that is not following the rules.”

The neighbour asked that his name not be used for fear that it would cause friction in the apartment building. But he said her claims did not match what he saw and experienced. He booked rides in advance, he said, because she was too busy to accept same-day appointments, and on one trip he took she picked up or dropped off three other fares within an hour.

The woman placed a poster in the lobby of their building offering car service to anywhere in the city and she charged between $10 and $12 each way and welcomed tips, the neighbour said, at least for rides to places other than the hospital.

Asked about his claims, the woman demanded to know his identity and disputed that she had run a busy car service, charged more than $12 round-trip and continued to drive passengers to places other than the hospital after the warning.

“I really don’t want to talk about it anymore,” the woman told The Free Press.

She also accused bylaw officers of singling her out by issuing parking tickets after new ownership of her building required parking passes, though it would be unusual for the city to patrol private lots.

jsher@postmedia.com

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