JUST DESSERTS
FINE FOR RACIAL ASSAULT ON YORK TAXI DRIVER
A woman passenger who attacked a taxi driver and hurled racial insults at him has appeared in court. Kathleen Ritchie, 49, had been a taxi driver herself for 15 years before setting up a cleaning business. But that did not stop her hitting taxi driver Riza Kilic.
Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, said that she hurled abuse at the driver and said: “Everything was going all right until you for- eigners came along” during the incident in Bishopthorpe.
But she was using her mobile phone at the time, and it recorded her words, he told York magistrates. According to the York Evening Press,
Ritchie, from Dring- houses, York, pleaded guilty to racial assault and was ordered to pay £100 compensa- tion to Mr Kilic.
She was also fined £100 and made to pay a £15 victim surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.
Lee-Anne Robins- Hick, Ritchie’s soli- citor, said Ritchie had not realised when out with friends that evening that she should not mix alcohol and the medicine she was taking and had behaved out of char- acter.
In 15 years as a taxi driver, she herself had been the victim of abuse from drunken people.
She could not remem- ber hitting Mr Kilic.
FEMALE TAXI DRIVER BAN FOR BURY ST EDMUNDS MAN
A ‘plucky’ taxi driver has been praised by a judge after she stood up to a passenger who made lewd remarks, assaulted her,
and
then ran off without paying his fare.
Steven Alderton, 31, had initially been charged with sexual assault but the CPS downgraded that to a charge of common assault when the case came before Bury St Edmunds magistrates. According to the Bury Free Press, Alderton, from Bury, admitted charges of assault by beating, making off without payment and being in possession of amphetamine, when he appeared before the court a month ago. Wayne Ablett, prose- cuting, said the driver was bringing Alderton back to Bury when he made lewd comments suggesting they go back to her house. He touched her thigh and later touched one
PAGE 76 of her breasts.
He then refused to pay the fare, before running off into a nightclub. The driver called the police who arrested Alderton and discov- ered the amphetamine in his possession. The court heard the driver lost £50 in earn- ings while giving a statement at the police station.
District judge David Cooper said: “It was awful and obscene. It must have been fright- ening and it’s a good job she was so robust about it all.” He added: “This has been one of the most repulsive cases I have heard for a long time.’
Alderton was given a 120-day prison sen- tence, suspended for one year. He was also banned from travelling in a taxi driven by a female and has been banned from all pubs and clubs in England and Wales for nine months.
DISCHARGE FOR THROWING BOTTLE AT WORCESTER TAXI
A Worcester man drank 15 pints of lager then caused hundreds of pounds of damage to a taxi by throwing a bottle at the boot, a court was told.
Dean Roberts, aged 29, from Blackpole, admitted criminal damage at Worcester Magistrates’ Court after the driver said the bottle caused nearly £480 damage. According to the Worcester News, the court was told that Roberts and a friend were picked up by the driver but when they said they wanted to get out shortly after- wards, the driver asked for his fare. Sallie Hewitt, prose- cuting, said: “As they got out, he could see the defendant was
holding a bottle. He heard a loud bang as he was driving off and realised something had been thrown at the rear of his taxi.” The driver claimed the bottle caused a chip in the paintwork of the boot and a long crease in the body- work.
Roberts told police he had drunk 15 pints of lager and an unknown quantity of shots and could not recall either getting in the taxi or throwing the bottle but he accepted he must have thrown it.
Magistrates gave Roberts a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay compensation of £477.52.
Roberts, also has to pay £85 costs.
PRISON FOR DEATH CRASH SWANSEA DRIVERS
Two men have are fac- ing “inevitable” prison sentences for causing the death of a Swansea taxi driver by racing at more than 90mph. Nathan Hunt and Michael Davies were found guilty last month after a retrial at Swansea Crown Court. They denied causing the death of cabbie Martin Griffiths by dan- gerous driving, but were unanimously con- victed after the jury had discussed the evidence for over five hours. According to the South Wales Evening Post, Mr Griffiths, aged 52, was killed as he drove home to Swansea along the westbound carriage- way of the A483 in February 7 last year. The fatal crash hap- pened as Peugeot 106 driver Hunt and Cit- roen Saxo driver Davies raced each other along the east- bound carriageway. The Peugeot hit the central reservation,
became airborne and smashed into Mr Grif- fiths’s taxi. The cabbie was thrown from his vehicle in the crash and his body was found on the nearby verge. After the verdicts were announced, it emerged that Davies’s driving licence had been endorsed with three penalty points for using his mobile phone while driving on February 6 - the day before the collision. Hunt, aged 23, from Neath, and Davies, aged 21, from Swansea, were to be sentenced once reports had been prepared by probation officers. Judge Huw Davies QC warned them: “You must understand with the utmost clarity that each of you will be going to prison.” Mr Griffiths had been a taxi driver for about 18 months and was a popular member of Swansea Yacht and Sub-Aqua Club.
FOUR YEARS FOR ATTACK ON SWANSEA CABBIE
A cabbie’s 50-year career has been shat- tered after he was attacked by two pas- sengers. Lyndon Phillips, aged 73, was grabbed by the throat from behind by the pair who then fled with a carrier bag con- taining his £20 float and his spectacles. Norman David Smith, aged 31, from Skewen, was sent down for four years, and Christopher Jef- ford, 24, from Clydach, got two years and nine months after they pleaded guilty.
The court heard that Mr Phillips was left badly shaken by his ordeal and needed treatment for injuries to his neck and chest. According to a victim impact statement, he
also developed sleep- ing difficulties as a result of the attack and had decided to pack in early-morning shifts. Acting Detective Inspector Ricky Price, of Neath Port Talbot CID, told the South Wales Evening Post: “The sentences reflect the seriousness of this incident which left the taxi driver extremely shaken.
“Robberies such as this are not every day occurrences in Neath Port Talbot but when they do happen we will be committed to bring- ing the perpetrators to justice.”
Sentencing Smith and Jefford, Judge Diehl QC said it was a seri- ous case and prison terms were unavoid- able.
12 MONTHS FOR BARRY TEEN’S BITE ATTACK
A teenager who bit two taxi drivers and threat- ened to rape the police officers who arrested him, was locked up at Cardiff Crown Court last month.
Eighteen-year-old Jacob Phillips tried to get into a taxi after a booze-fuelled night out in December but the driver, Andrzej Szy- manowicz, refused. Prosecuting Phillips, Richard Evans said: “The driver was aware that the defendant was intoxicated and refused the fare. That resulted in the defen- dant shouting ‘why won’t you give me a lift’ and punching him to his head and biting him on his forearm, puncturing the skin.” Mr Szymanowicz put out a distress call to other drivers, including Ralph Gunner,
but
when they attended, Phillips attacked them too, also biting Gunner. Mr Evans told the court: “Three drivers
attended and there was a struggle, through the course of which three of the drivers were spat at and kicked.”
The defendant was overpowered but poured out a torrent of (racist) abuse.
When police officers arrived Phillips threat- ened to rape and kill them, and was aggres- sive in the police van. Phillips pleaded guilty to ABH, common assault, using threat- ening behaviour, obs- tructing a police offi- cer and using racially-aggravated language. He was sen- tenced to a year’s imprisonment.
A to B taxi manager, Anne Hayshan, told the Barry and District News: “We are very happy that justice has been done. Sometimes it doesn’t go to court so we are very pleased this case has gone for- ward and the person responsible has gone to prison.”
PHTM APRIL 2010
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