JUST DESERTS POWYS MAN ESCAPES JAIL AND ORDERED TO PAY £1,000 COMPENSATION TO CABBIE HE ASSAULTED
A Powys man has been ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to a taxi driver he assaulted, although he has escaped an immediate prison sentence. The County Times reports that Dylan Morgan Thomas, 24, assaulted Sohail Bashir, causing him actual bodily harm, in Cardiff on June 23 last year. Thomas had initially denied an offence of assault, as well as a second of causing criminal damage to Mr Bashir’s
taxi wing mirror, but changed his pleas to guilty on the morning of his trial. At Cardiff Magistrates’ Court on 22 March, Thomas was given a prison sentence of six months – suspended for a year. Magistrates described the incident as a nasty assault on a taxi driver and said Thomas’ previous convictions for violence aggravated the situation. However, they said they had decided to
suspend the imprisonment because of his eventual guilty plea and mitigation. In addition to the suspended sentence, Thomas was ordered to pay Mr Bashir compensation of £1,000. He must also pay court costs of £620 and a £128 surcharge – leaving Thomas to pay a total financial penalty of £1,748. Magistrates ordered no separate penalty for the damage to the wing mirror.
MET POLICE OFFICER WHO BROKE BRENTWOOD CABBIE’S JAW AFTER NIGHT OUT WOULD BE FORCED TO RESIGN
A Met Police officer who broke a taxi driver’s jaw has been convicted of causing actual bodily harm (ABH). My London News reports that Pc Gareth Head was acquitted of racially aggravated actual bodily harm in October, but was tried again for actual bodily harm. After being convicted in March, a Met Police misconduct hearing on April 14 found he would be dismissed without notice if he were still a serving officer.
Head resigned prior to the hearing and will also now be placed on the College of Policing (CoP) Barred List. The 45-year-old attacked the Brent- wood cabbie as he was driving the then-serving officer home, in May 2018. The driver contacted the police after recognising Pc Head two months later and made note of the car registration. The taxi driver says the officer punched him in the shoulder, face, and accused him of drug misuse.
He was sentenced to a community order for 12 months and subject to a curfew for three. He was also ordered to pay £1,750 towards the cost of the trial and a victim surcharge of £85. IOPC Regional Director Sal Naseem: “PC Head’s behaviour fell far short of what is expected of a police officer and he now has a criminal conviction to his name. Our investigation found a case to answer for gross misconduct and we will now progress that with the force.”
FOUR YEARS’ JAIL FOR BIRMINGHAM CAB PASSENGER FOUND WITH SAWN-OFF SHOTGUN AND KNIFE
Armed police who swooped on a cab in Birmingham and dragged a passenger out discovered he was carrying a sawn- off shotgun. BirminghamLive reports that Theo Richards also had two shot- gun cartridges and a combat knife. Richards, 22, from Perry Barr, who had previously admitted possessing a prohibited firearm, possessing ammu- nition without a firearms certificate and two charges of possessing a class A drug, was jailed for four years. Richards had been picked up on the evening of April 16 last year and when
78
they got to a junction in Bristol Road, Selly Oak, officers from a specialist unit surrounded the taxi. The defendant was told to get out of the taxi and when he refused an officer smashed the back window. Richards continued to resist officers and was dragged out of the vehicle
and a
combat knife fell on to the ground. He was seen to be keeping his arms close to his chest and officers noticed a JD sports bag underneath him which was strapped around his neck. When the bag was searched a working sawn-
off shot-gun was found inside which had been crudely shortened. Two shotgun cartridges fell from his pocket. The court was told that when previously stopped by police after driving errati- cally on a moped he was found in possession of crack cocaine and heroin. In passing sentence Recorder Simon Levene said, referring to the taxi driver: “It must have been absolutely terrifying with the police having to smash through the window. He was surrounded by men with guns, the police and you in the car with a gun.”
MAY 2022
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96
