A drunken man who assaulted a 66-year-old taxi driver in Carlisle city centre has escaped an immediate jail term.
Ashley Turnbull, 25, of Mill Street, Longtown, headbutted George Dickinson after he was asked to hand over £60 as a penalty for being sick in the back of his cab.
Carlisle Crown Court heard how Mr Dickinson had picked Turnbull and his friends up from the Golden Fleece, in Ruleholme, between Brampton and Longtown, and driven them to Carlisle city centre on December 5 last year.
He had no problem with the group until he asked for the additional money, at which point Turnbull became aggressive, hurling abuse at Mr Dickinson, headbutting him and putting his fingers inside his mouth.
As a result of the attack, prosecutor Gerard Rogerson described how Mr Dickinson was now “far more wary” about who he picked up in his taxi.
He suffered reddening of his chin, cuts to the inside of his mouth and also had his dentures badly damaged by Turnbull, meaning that he could no longer wear them.
Mr Rogerson said: “As a result of the incident his sleep pattern was disturbed and he lost a stone in weight. At the age of 66 he expressed surprise at being attacked by a young man.”
The court heard that Turnbull – who pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing – had no previous convictions, and he was told by Judge Peter Hughes that had it not been for his “hitherto good character”, he would have been sent to prison immediately.
Judge Hughes said: “Attacks on taxi drivers are totally unacceptable… the way you behaved towards that taxi driver was really quite shameful.”
Turnbull was handed a six-and-a-half-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
Judge Hughes also ordered him to pay compensation to Mr Dickinson of £500 and a contribution towards court costs of £340.
Worth exploring
Knife attacks on two cabbies
The man sat in the front passenger seat, asked the driver to pull over and pushed something sharp into his side, demanding money.
He escaped with the driver’s cash takings, and was white, 6ft, with short dark hair and wore a tee-shirt and jeans.
The second attacker was picked up on Moorside Gardens, Ovenden, at 10.30pm.
He asked the cabbie to stop on Foundry Street North before pulling out a knife and demanding cash. The robber – who made off with cash – was white, aged 20, 5ft 5ins, clean shaven with a local accent and wore a blue hooded top.
Anyone with information should contact police on 01422 337080.
A terrified Carlisle taxi driver was assaulted and then ordered out of his cab by a passenger who later drove off with the vehicle.
Police say the incident happened in Deer Park Road, Belah, between 4am and 5am on Saturday.
The driver was unhurt and his Vauxhall Vectra taxi was later found abandoned in Deer Park Road two hours later.
A 21-year-old man from Carlisle was later arrested at his home on suspicion of common assault, taking a vehicle without consent and driving while over the alcohol limit.
He was interviewed by officers and released on police bail.
Rawinder Sahota
POLICE in Swindon have launched a manhunt after a 59-year-old taxi driver was punched and kicked to the ground.
Shortly before 2.30am on Sunday, Rawinder Sahota, arrived in Lacock Road, Penhill, to drop off his three passengers – a man and two women.
Mr Sahota asked for his fare, and after one of the females paid he was met with a barrage of abuse from the man.
The driver got out of his vehicle and was seriously assaulted with the offender punching him in the head causing him to fall and then continued to punch and kick the victim as he lay on the ground.
The three then ran off into Pewsham Road, Penhill. Mr Sahota recalls seeing another taxi driver who pulled up nearby and a woman who came to his aid until police arrived.
He was taken to Great Western Hospital where he was treated for his injuries, which included painful swelling and bruises to his head, face and shoulder.
PC Stefan Watts said: “This was a nasty attack and I would like to hear from any witnesses who haven’t yet come forward or anyone who knows the identity of the three people involved.”
The man was described as white, aged in his 20s with dark short shaved hair, of medium build and 5ft 8ins tall.
The first woman was described as white, 5ft 2ins tall, of medium build, with straight shoulder length brunette hair.
She was wearing a white top with a black cardigan and a black skirt which was just above the knee. She had a local accent.
The second woman was white, also 5ft 2ins tall and of medium build. She had light coloured hair which was cut just above the shoulder and was wearing dark clothing.
Anyone with any information should call PC Watts, of Swindon Police, on 0845 408 7000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where information can be left anonymously.
Taxi driver Adnan Latif, who drove Gary Willerton to Thorpe Wood Police Station after he refused to pay his fare and smashed up the back of his taxi
A Peterborough cab driver has told how he feared for his life when a drunken yob threatened to kill him in a late night row over a £6 fare.
But the brave taxi driver kept his cool, and refusing to unlock the doors, drove straight to a police station where the thug was arrested.
Cabbie Adnan Latif (20) said he feared for his life when Gary Willerton (27) of Sheepwalk, Paston, smashed the rear passenger window of his taxi and then threatened to kill him.
However, rather than let violent Willerton out of the cab, Mr Latif calmly drove to Thorpe Wood Police Station where Willerton was arrested.
Willerton denied causing criminal damage and using threatening words and behaviour during the incident in November last year.
But on Monday he was jailed for six months at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court after being found guilty at a trial last month.
Afterwards Mr Latif, of Berkeley Road, Westwood, Peterborough said: “I remember the night well. He jumped in my taxi with another man, but when I got to his house he said he was not going to pay the £5.80 fare.
“He then smashed the rear window with his elbow, and said he would smash the rest of the windows and kill me if I did not let him out. He was with a friend, and after he smashed the window I knew he was serious about what he was threatening to do. I knew I had the safety glass between me and him, so I drove to Thorpe Wood where he was arrested.
“I am pleased that he got six months. It should make him think about what he has done.”
Defending, Richard Brown said: “Willerton does have a bad record, but most of his offending has been committed while under the influence of drink.
“Since this offence he has not been drinking to curb his offending.”
The court was told Willerton had been convicted of assault, affray and grievous bodily harm in the past.
Sentencing, chair magistrate Michael Flanagan told Willerton: “You subjected your victim to a considerable degree of distress.
He added: “It is our duty to send a message to the community that people who commit this type of offence will receive a custodial sentence.”
Taxi association supports sentence
THE jailing of Gary Willerton has been welcomed by the National Taxi Association. The association looks after the well being of blackcab drivers, and a spokesman said violence against cabbies was an increasing issue.
He said: “This is part of an ongoing and increasing problem of violence against taxi drivers, who are just doing their job to help people.
“We are getting reports from across the country every week about violence against drivers.
“Taxi drivers are in a vulnerable situation, and people who attack drivers or make their lives and jobs difficult deserve everything they get.
“This sentence will send a message that this behaviour will not be tolerated.”
source: http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/
Taxi cabbie Geroge, who is too afraid to reveal his surname after being attacked
A battered cabbie has slammed a jail sentence handed to two men who throttled him during a brutal roadside attack.
The injured driver has been stunned after Keith Cullen and Kenneth Musgrave were sent down for just 30 months each.
The thugs, who have 134 previous convictions between them, have left the Wearside family man suffering nightmares and anxious about working.
Cullen and Musgrave hailed a taxi from Sunderland railway station after spending the afternoon drinking in the William Jameson pub, Durham Crown Court heard yesterday.
They asked to be taken to the County Durham village of West Cornforth, but told the driver to stop on the way.
Prosecutor Gavin Doig said: “It was about 5.30pm when they reached Sherburn, near Durham City.
“One of the defendants said he wanted to use the toilet.
“The driver pulled over into a makeshift layby and Musgrave grabbed him from behind and held him tightly by the neck.
“He was forced from the car and describes how he nearly passed out.
“The driver came to and saw Musgrave in the driver’s seat of his Ford Tourneo taxi, revving the engine.
“Bravely, he got up from the road and grabbed the keys, at which point Musgrave ran off.”
The court heard Cullen then jumped into the driver’s seat of the taxi.
“Any attempt to drive it away was frustrated by the absence of the keys,” added Mr Doig.
“A passer-by, Stephen Boxx, intervened, and helped drag Cullen from the taxi.”
Cullen, 33, of Azalea Terrace North, Ashbrooke, Sunderland, and Musgrave, 31, of Medway Close, Great Lumley, each admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and attempted vehicle taking on November 11 last year.
The court was told Cullen has 41 previous convictions and Musgrave has 93 previous convictions, including a joint offence of ram raiding for which they were jailed for four years each in 2004.
Lawyers for the pair said the attempt to take the taxi was not planned and was carried out when they were intoxicated.
Judge Guy Whitburn QC jailed the pair for 30 months each.
Speaking after the hearing, George, 59, who did not want to give his surname for fear of reprisals, said: “It’s not long enough, as everybody says.
“I don’t work as many hours as I used to and I was getting nightmares.
“One of the witnesses said he was a doorman and it was the worst assault he had ever seen.”
source: http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/
Another Watford taxi driver has fallen victim to a vicious assault at the hands of drunken, violent passengers.
Mohammed Arfan, 32, was battered about the head and robbed by two men in the early hours of Friday morning, after driving them from a town centre nightclub to north London.
Mr Arfan, who has now been attacked twice in four months, escaped serious injury in the attack but lost more than £100 in takings.
He said: “I picked up three men outside Oceana, at about 3.30am. I took the money upfront and everything was fine. There was no argument until we got to Barnet.
“One guy got out in Barnet Lane and the two others told me to carry on driving. We got to a dead-end in Hadley Wood Road and the guy in the back jumped out, opened the door and started hitting me.
“Then the other guy joined in and started hitting me as well.
“There was no argument at all so I think they had planned to do it. I was horrified, I didn’t know if they were going to stop.”
The latest attack comes just one month after two drivers were savagely beaten in one night, and has added weight to drivers’ demands for in-car CCTV and safety screens.
Mr Arfan added: “Everybody is scared out there. People are worried about working nights because of the attacks from passengers. They are worried someone will get seriously hurt.”
Shafiq Ahmed, chairman of the Watford Hackney Carriage Drivers Association, recently delivered a petition to Watford Borough Council - which licenses taxis – requesting joint funding to make the improvements.
He said: “This latest attack shows the dangers drivers are facing every night. We are doing a dangerous job and need some protection.
“We do not expect the council to pay for everything but we cannot afford to do it all by ourselves.”
A TAXI driver was brutally slashed by two girls who refused to pay a £6 fare.
The pair, aged 15 and 16, carried out the sickening assault with a craft knife on the doorstep of the house which grandad Alistair Mackay had driven them to.
Around 30 taxis raced to the scene within five minutes of the attack after Alistair, 61, pressed his panic button.
One driver said: “The police also got there very quickly - and it was just as well with 30 taxi drivers trying to get at this pair of scumbags.”
Alistair, a dad of four and grandad of 13, suffered face and back injuries.
He said last night: “These girls were just wee things and had been quite chatty during the journey.
“When I got to the house, they said they would need to go inside to get money.
“I waited for 10 minutes then knocked the door. I said, ‘It’s about the taxi fare.’
“She replied, ‘What fare?’ She shut the door and I knocked again.She opened it and went for me, flailing at my face with a knife.
“I fell to the ground before I could get back to my taxi and hit the alarm.”
As other cabbies raced to the Tango Call which signals a driver in danger, police sped to the scene in Castlemilk, Glasgow.
The occupants of the house refused to answer the door - and police were forced to break in with a battering ram.
Neighbours and cab drivers applauded as the suspects were led out. Police confirmed two girls, aged 15 and 16, had been detained and said a report would be sent to the fiscal.
A YOUNG mum-of-three is facing jail for racially abusing a taxi driver and repeatedly punching him in the face.
Reading Crown Court heard that Gabrielle Richardson struck the Pakistani driver through a plastic partition, after becoming enraged over the fare during a journey to pick up her son from school.
Richardson, 24, of Hunters Way, Slough, had admitted assault by beating but denied it was racially aggravated. However, she was convicted by a jury on Monday.
The mum had got into the seven-seater cab at a rank in Church Road, Slough, on October, 24, 2008.
The driver then began making his way to Cippenham, however, as soon as he pulled away, Richardson became angry that the meter showed the standard £3 minimum charge.
Giving evidence at the court, Mr Rashid said: “I said there was nothing I can do as this was a meter taxi not a minicab but nothing was going through. She wasn’t listening and just kept on abusing and swearing at me - she said ‘you f***ing P***, I’m not paying that money.’”
Mr Rashid said that he then stopped at a bus stop and told his five passengers - which included Richardson’s nine-month old son and three-year-old daughter - to get out. However, they refused so he threatened to drive to Slough Police station.
“Her words were ’so f***ing what, go on then,’” added Mr Rashid.
“She then started swearing at me in my own language and then the abuse became very violent and she started punching me through the glass. She was punching me wherever she could and got me in the face and in the teeth.”
Mr Rashid, who has been driving taxis for 33 years, said he was hit three or four times, receiving a black eye and cuts to the lip.
When he arrived at the police station, he sounded his horn and was let in through a barrier, before being met by a number of officers. It was said that Mr Rashid was then taken to an interview room where he explained the assault, but when officers went back to talk to Richardson she had fled.
Richardson, was arrested 10 days later, when she attended Slough Police Station to collect some property, and was recognised by an officer.
Deputy Circuit Judge Roger Connor adjourned sentencing so that a pre-sentence report could be prepared.
source: http://www.sloughobserver.co.uk/news/
The 31-year-old was found guilty of robbery but not guilty of possessing a knife in public after a trial at Portsmouth Crown Court. The judge said that Holley had made the 32-year-old think he had a knife.
After the conviction his victim said: ‘In that sort of situation you’re thinking, “how am I going to get away with this?” It was a bit hairy. I don’t know how he thought he could get away with it, considering the police found him with all my stuff.
‘I don’t think he should be out on the streets. If he does a long stint I think that will be justice for what he did to me. He’s a danger to the public.’
During the trial the court heard Holley had told his victim ‘I’m going to cut you up’ after getting into the taxi in Conigar Road, Emsworth.
When the police went to Holley’s home the next day they found the stolen items but he told them: ‘I never robbed them, the taxi driver sold me the phones.’
Mr Green, who was working for Andicars on the night of December 14, 2008, said he knew Holley was trouble as soon as he picked him up.
‘There was a bit of an aggressive atmosphere in the car,’ he said. ‘There was no real indication of where I needed to go. He acted like he wasn’t a particularly nice character.
‘I knew straight away within the first 30 seconds there was going to be trouble one way or another.
‘He was in the front seat next to me. He was telling me not to slow down, not to slam on the brakes.’
Holley, of Laburnum Grove, North End, Portsmouth, also grabbed the driver’s sunglasses as he got out before telling his victim: ‘You’re not actually that bad a bloke, see you later.’
Asked if he had sworn at Mr Green and threatened him Holley said: ‘With my hand on my heart I can only say those sort of words do not leave my mouth, ever.’
But the jury did not believe his tale and they took just an hour-and-a-half to reach their verdict.
Judge Graham White said: ‘You have been found guilty unanimously by the jury of a very serious offence indeed.
‘Robbery of somebody in the vulnerable position of a taxi driver where you quite clearly made him believe that you had something that you could cut him with is so serious that you have got to understand that although I am ordering a pre-sentence report, and it’s only right that I should, that you face a custodial sentence.’
And he added: ‘The issue will be, to my mind, not what sentence but how long.’
Shaun Holley
A man who booked a taxi and then robbed the driver, threatening to ‘cut him up’ is facing a lengthy prison sentence.
