IN THE NEWS
8 YEARS’ JAIL FOR MAN WHO CONDUCTED REVENGE CAMPAIGN AGAINST GOLDLINE TAXIS, SUFFOLK
Two men spent six years engaged in a vendetta against a taxi firm which saw cabs fired at with air guns, a court has heard. Adrian Ling (pictured) launched the “revenge campaign” against Goldline Travel, along with Daniel Garrison, after being sacked by the firm in 2012. Their trial heard that over the next seven years the firm’s vehicles were repeatedly shot at while picking up and carrying fares. In other attacks, the pair slashed tyres, broke wing mirrors, and hurled corrosive substances over bodywork. They carried out a total of 83 acts of criminal damage against the taxi and PHV firm’s property between March 2013 and May 2019. Ling, 63, even used a radio scanner to monitor Goldline’s communi- cations systems in order to plan ambushes, in what the judge said was a “revenge campaign of Hollywood proportions”. Both men were found guilty of a string of offences at Ipswich Crown Court with Ling sentenced to eight years in prison. Garrison was bailed, awaiting pre-sentence reports. Ling, from Beccles, started working at Goldline in 2008 as a mechanic, but was sacked by owner Ian Trussler in 2012 after being accused of stealing diesel - although his conviction for the offence was later overturned. In a victim statement read out at court by
prosecutor Andrew
Thompson, Mr Trussler said: “I could never have imagined the destruction that Mr Ling would cause to my life when he left the company. The events of the past 12 years have left me at breaking
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including a second hand red Ford Focus which Garrison regist- ered under a false name and address. A red Ford Focus was then captured on CCTV in the vicinity of several incidents of criminal
point and I feel like my life has been put on hold since 2012. “The number and frequency of damage to company vehicles was relentless,” he said. Mr Trussler told the court he had to install a system to block Ling from intercepting the company’s radio to prevent ambush attacks. Mr Thompson told the court it was thought the vandalism had caused at least £250,000 of damage but this is disputed. The court also heard from Claire Tillett, an office manager at Goldline who claimed Ling had followed her home and said she “felt on edge everyday”. Many of the cabs were attacked with shots fired from a passing car, shattering windows and denting bodywork, while they were picking up or carrying passengers, though none were injured. However, a driver was injured by a projectile when her car window was smashed. The court was told metal cylinder projectiles were recovered inside vehicles or nearby after the attacks. Ling and Garrison were arrested after police analysed CCTV and ANPR footage, phone cell location and mobile phone data, as well as witness statements. Officers found the pair bought vehicles and using cloned regis- tration plates to avoid detection,
damage against vehicles, with a cloned registration plate. Crucially, Garrison had sent Ling a text with the cloned registration number prior to the incidents. CCTV captured a red Ford Focus with cloned plates in April 2016, driving past a Goldline taxi, turn around, pass the cab again before a window suddenly shattered. The Focus then drove off at high speed. An off-duty police officer recog- nised Garrison driving a blue Ford Ka behind a Goldline taxi with a man crouched down in the back. Enquiries established the regis- tration details had been cloned. Eight days later a blue Ford Ka was caught on CCTV following an attack on another taxi in Beccles. Ling and Garrison were arrested. Passing sentence, Judge Martyn Levett told Ling he was “a vengeful person”. The Judge ordered the destruction of Ling’s air rifles and his radio scanner. Ling and Garrison, 35, from Woodbridge, were found guilty of conspiring to commit criminal damage to property belonging to Goldline Travel between Decem- ber 2012 and November 2019 and damaging company vehicles. Ling was also convicted of four offences of having an air rifle with intent to commit criminal damage between 2013 and 2019.
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