UNJUST DESERTS


CABBIE RACIALLY ABUSED AND PUNCHED TURNED DETECTIVE TO TRACE GATESHEAD PASSENGER


A taxi driver subjected to a racist attack by a passenger turned amateur detective to track him down on Facebook. The victim was working for Blue Line Taxis when he was called to pick up Carl Turnbull and a woman in Byker, Newcastle, around 1am in September 2021. Turnbull said he would direct the cabbie rather than giving a destination, and paid a £10 deposit. The victim said during the journey Turnball made disapproving com- ments about the number of black people or immigrants in the area. Turnbull told him to stop in Forest Hall and was told the bill was £14. The woman with him went to pay with her card but Turnbull stopped


her. There was then a dispute about what the fare should be. Turnbull got out of the car and called the driver a “black *******” and repeatedly kicked the taxi.


Deborah Smithies, prosecuting, said: “The victim got out to look for damage and there was a physical confrontation. The defendant confronted him, tried to goad him, pushed him and punched him once in the face.” The victim shouted for some bystanders to call the police and someone did so and as the sirens


approached, Turnbull ran off. The taxi driver suffered a broken little finger and pain to his face and there were


dents and


scratches to his car. He found his attacker by searching Facebook for people called Carl in Newcastle, flicking through profiles until he found the face he recognised about a month after the attack. Turnbull, 32, from Gateshead, who has 36 previous convictions, pleaded guilty


to racially


aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage and was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison suspended for two years. He must also do a “thinking skills programme”.


SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR WELSH WOMAN WHO REVERSED INTO TAXI AFTER ROW WITH DRIVER


A woman deliberately reversed her car into the front of a parked taxi, narrowly missing its driver who was standing on the pavement. Charlotte Finley came out of a shop in Cardigan at 10.30pm on June 4 last year. CCTV footage shows her reversing twice into the front of a taxi parked on the road behind her vehicle. The owner of the taxi, who walked down the road on foot, can then be seen remonstrating with Finley through the open door of her car. She then reversed a third time at speed and seemingly deliberately into the front of the taxi, narrowly missing the taxi driver with the open door of her vehicle, before driving off and causing £500


52


worth of damage to the taxi. The court heard that the cabbie had parked near his home and was walking towards his vehicle when he saw it shunted back twice.


When he confronted Finley she said: “You are not in the taxi rank’ before reversing into his vehicle, forcing him to move out of the way to avoid being hit by her door. Finley, 37, of St Dogmaels, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and criminal damage at the earliest opportunity and was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court. The court heard that Finley had ten previous convictions, one for criminal damage as a juvenile and two drink-driving offences in 2007


and 2011. “When the owner [of the taxi] appears you drive what appears to be deliberately into the car. It must have been an upsetting incident for the car owner,” said His Honour Judge Geraint Walters. Judge Walters gave Finley an eight-month prison sentence for the dangerous driving with a two- month concurrent sentence for the criminal damage offence. Both sentences were suspended for two years. He disqualified Finley from driving for a year, after which she will have to retake her test. She will also have to pay a £114 victim surcharge and undertake 20 days of rehabilitation activity and 150 hours of unpaid work.


JUNE 2024 PHTM


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