NYC taxi officials plan to slap “significant penalties” on what could be thousands of cabbies found guilty of overcharging riders in a widespread meter scam, The NY Post learned yesterday.

The administrative process, still being worked on by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Com mission, would target the slew of “less egregious” scam offenders who are expected to escape more serious prosecution by law enforcement, sources said.

The plan would essentially be a way to keep many of the drivers on the road while still punishing them for the deceptive thefts, sources said.

Officials were concerned that if they stuck to current TLC guidelines — which say drivers found guilty of overcharging more than $10 in total can have their licenses revoked — a significant number of hacks would suddenly be taken off the road, which could harm how the taxi industry functions, sources said.

More than 35,000 of the city’s 48,300 taxi drivers have been implicated in the $8.3 million scam — with 3,000 of those drivers duping riders more than 100 times each.

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday said the city’s Department of Investigation is focusing on the “most egregious” drivers who routinely scammed riders by sneakily charging them the double-fare suburban rate instead of the cheaper city-rate fare.

Meanwhile, the poster boy for the scam, cabby Wasid Khalid Cheema, seems to have ripped off more than just his unsuspecting passengers.

Nabil Sleiman, who alternated shifts in the same cab Cheema used to scam riders out of at least $40,000, said the other driver owes him about $200 in leasing fees.

“Now I’m responsible for it, but that’s OK,” said Sleiman, 47. “I was shocked when I heard about what he did to those people. I’m so sorry he did that to the customers.”

It was one of Cheema’s customers who dropped the dime on him — and unwittingly led to the widespread scam being uncovered.

Gene Freidman, who owns the cab that Cheema sometimes used to execute the scam, called the disgraced driver “a criminal who should not be driving a cab.”

(Source: http://www.nypost.com/)