UNJUST DESERTS
DRUNK COWDENBEATH FEMALE PASSENGER WHO CHOKED CABBIE AT 70MPH IS FINED £570
A drunk passenger repeatedly pulled a cabbie’s face covering causing him to lose control of his car at 70mph. Culprit, Lyndsay Craig, 39, from Cowdenbeath, has now been sentenced at Dunfermline Sheriff Court. Craig admitted that on September 12, 2021 on the A92, she culpably and recklessly grabbed the face
covering of the taxi driver three times whilst he was driving, causing him to be pulled away from the steering wheel and pedals. The driver “felt like he was being choked” which resulted in him losing control of the vehicle, exposing him and other road users to serious injury. When he told her to stop, Craig
said: “Don’t you tell me what to do.” The cabbie reported the matter to the police and Craig told officers: “I’m sorry. I don’t even remember doing it.” Depute fiscal Francis Gill told Craig: “There could have been catastrophic consequences for you, the driver and other road users.” He fined her £570.
NEWCASTLE ROBBER HANDED THREE YEARS’ JAIL FOR FEROCIOUS RACIST ATTACK ON CABBIE
A cabbie was subjected to a “ferocious” and terrifying robbery during which he was punched, kicked, throttled and racially abused. Newcastle Crown Court heard the taxi driver was asked to pick up customers from a Newcastle pub, at around 5.30pm on December 18 last year and Tams was one of two men who got in. During the trip to their hostel, the cabbie felt intimidated by them. When they got to there, Tams asked the driver to wait but then came out and said he didn’t need the taxi anymore and asked for the £10 which had been paid at the start of the journey to be handed back but was told the fare had already reached £8. Omar Ahmad, prosecuting, said: “The defendant became hostile and the driver was frightened and so returned the money.
The
defendant then proceeded to punch him to the face
and
demanded his takings. “He handed over £40 and the defendant punched him again,
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then opened the driver’s door and kicked him several times to the stomach.” Tams then got in the back of the car, shouting vile racist abuse and punched a plastic screen, causing damage. Mr Ahmad said: “He then grabbed him round the neck and pinned him to the side. He couldn’t breathe.” The victim tried to drive a short distance, hoping that he would get out but Tams then punched the car key, breaking it. The cabbie then ran from the car to seek help. He was left with a cut lip, bruising to his eye and a suspected broken rib. In a victim impact statement the cabbie said: “Every aspect of my life has been affected. I’ve been traumatised and keep getting flashbacks.
“I honestly thought I was going to die when he was strangling me with the seatbelt.
“I prayed to Allah to save me and he said ‘no-one is going to save you now, you are going to die.’” He added: added: “I would like the court to ask Christopher Tams why he attacked me when I told him to take anything he wanted and not physically assault me.” Tams, 19, of Heaton, Newcastle, has nine previous convictions and was on a community order, imposed for supplying class A drugs. He pleaded guilty to robbery and racially aggravated criminal damage and was jailed for three years. Recorder Brian Whitehead told him: “It involved ferocious violence, punching, kicking, shouting racial abuse then getting in the back and grabbing him round the neck so he couldn’t breathe.” Jane Foley, defending, said he had a troubled upbringing, spent time in care and added: “He remembers very little about the events with which we are concerned. Tams himself added: “I’m horrified in myself and want to apologise to the court and to (the victim).”
JUNE 2023 PHTM
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