86 PRIVATEHIRE AND TAXI MONTHLY TERROR TIMES DUNDEE TAXI DRIVERS TARGETED
Taxi dr ivers in D undee are being t argeted b y stone-throwing yobs in a city housing estate, it has been claimed. James P ratt, who works f or Te le/Handy Taxis, called the police on a r ecent Sunday night a fter claiming he was a ssaulted b y the youths around 7.30pm. He s aid the thugs
opened his car door, spat a t him a nd t hrew “whatever they could get their h ands on” at the sho cked c abbie who managed to avoid being hurt. “There appears to be an ongoing problem in the Macalpine Road area, ” he told the Dundee Courier and Advertiser . “Bricks and s tones are
being thrown at passing cars every night. “It’s getting b eyond a joke and it’s just a matter of time before someone gets hurt. Luckily I man- aged to get the d oor closed a nd i mmediately called my base. T hey called t he p olice w ho turned up but the youths had d ispersed by t he time they got there.”
VIOLENT ROBBERS ATTACK ALSAGER DRIVER IN 'NASTY' ASSAULT
A taxi d river wa s robbed a nd bea ten in the early hours of April 14 in Alsager. Police a re askin g for information i n c onnec- tion w ith the r obbery and assault, which took place in Crewe Road. Officers say a taxi driv- er, who w orks for A1 National Embassy Taxis based i n C utts Street, Shelton, picked up two men in the Trinity Street area of Hanley. When he reached Alsager, he was ask ed to dr op of f the men near a r ow of s hops. They t old h im t hey needed to use the cash point but in stead got out of the c ar, dragged him out of the taxi and beat him in his face. The two men are white and be lieved to be in their early 20s. One was
wearing a black zip-up hoody and the o ther a green T-shirt, both with jeans and trainers. DC K eith Graham, of Congleton sp ecialist investigation uni t, told the Stoke-on-Trent Sen- tinel: “These men stole about £70 from the taxi driver and beat hi m severel y around the face. H e was le ft wit h swollen eyes and cuts. “We don’t know what kind of weapon was used in the attack but it was a very nasty assault.” Dave C urrie, secretary of NPHA af filiated Stoke-on-Trent Private Hire Association, w ho lives i n A lsager, s aid: “Driving taxis is a very risky b usiness a nd it’s not appreciated by the general public. “Taxis are part and par- cel o f t he pu blic
Be Safe- Stay Safe- with Cab Safe
transport s ystem but taxi drivers are mo re vulnerable than mos t and put t heir lives at risk to offer a service. “For a small sum of money these low lives have prevented a man from working to earn a living and have da m- aged a man irreparably for nothing. Nobody deserves t o be tre ated in such a way. “One of t he i nitiatives the licensing authori- ties are half-heartedly implementing is c am- eras in all taxis and private hires. “If this chap had fe lt vulnerable h e could have pressed a button and the ide ntity of these pe ople wo uld have been recorded. “This is a prime example of where cameras could have prevented a crime.”
SHOTS FIRED INTO COVENTRY CABBIE’S TAXI
A g unman op ened f ire on a taxi in Coventry city centre as violence spilled out of a nightclub. Three shots were fired from a h andgun as a man t ried to get into a black cab on the corner of Trinity St reet and Palmer Lane at 3.20am on April 12. Neither the passenger nor the cab- bie was h urt, a lthough
two bullet holes w ere visible a t t he back of the taxi. The gunman sped away in a car but 40 minutes later police raided a house in Longford and arrested a man in his 20s on suspicion of pos- sessing a firearm with intent to endanger life. No weapon was recov- ered at t he address so
several streets near the scene of the shooting, were sealed off to allow police to search th e area. Det Insp Darren Lee, of Coventry po lice, t old the Coventry Telegraph: “We believe it stemmed from some sort of dis- pute i n n earby Cl ub Release, which spilled over into the street.”
TAMWORTH MAN THREATENED CABBIE WITH TWO KNIVES
A Tamworth ma n w ho brandished t wo la rge kitchen k nives af ter running from a taxi was ‘just trying to scare the driver’. The Tam worth Heral d reports th at T homas Martin Shakespeare, 21, was on h is w ay ho me from a night out in the early h ours of Novem- ber 11, when he and a friend fled from the taxi without paying the fare. Appearing before town magistrates,
Shake-
speare pleaded guilty to possessing a knife blade or sharp pointed imple- ment in a public pla ce and using threatening words or be haviour, causing someone to fear unlawful violence. Prosecuting Mr Joh n Peel explained that the pair were not far fr om the defendant’s ho me
when they fled. But, r ecalling where Shakespeare lived, the taxi driver followed them. Mr Peel told the court the driver got out of the taxi and, grabbing a hockey stick he had in his cab, approached the friends. Shakespeare hea ded inside, while his f riend remained outside and an argument ensued. The defendant “emerged from his house with two large knives, one in each hand. The taxi driver ran back to the taxi, to take shelter in hi s cab,” Mr Peel said. A witness t old p olice she s aw a man wit h “40cm s ilver we apons in each hand w ith h is arms in the air”. “In a p olice int erview, Shakespeare said the driver had a hockey stick and was holding it
in an a ggressive ma n- ner,” Mr Peel explained. “He said he didn’t think there would have been a problem with the fare because h e thought h is friend was going to pay it. “Initially the defendant told offic ers he had nothing t o d o with the knives bu t lat er admi t- ted p roducing them, saying he felt in fear for his friend. “He s aid h e pr oduced the k nives t o s care the driver away but had no intention of using them.” Shakespeare’s s olici- tor, Mr Gareth Beynon, said h is cli ent ‘ bitterly regretted’ his actions. Mr Beynon urged magis- trates to deal with the case but unconvinced that t heir sentencing powers w ere s ufficient, the bench sent the matter to Stafford Crown Court.
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Six p eople c ould h ave been killed when yobs hurled a concrete block from a road bridge onto a taxi. Only qu ick t hinking b y Llanelli taxi d river Bo b Hinton
averted a
tragedy. He s werved and dodged the mis - sile, which f ell more than 30ft onto the main road into Llanelli. “Someone will be killed there,” Mr Hinton t old the Sou th Wale s Evening Post. Debris from the blo ck str uck the car and scratched it after M r H inton’s t axi, carrying fi ve passen- gers, dodged th e missile. “There have be en a number o f at tacks o n vehicles by pe ople throwing bricks,” s aid Mr Hinton. Mr Hinton is furious that police d id not
seem t o be interested in investigating th e matter. He took a saliva sam- ple from his car, after it had b een s pat o n b y the culprits, to Llanelli police station where he says he was told it would cost too much to investigate. “It’s n ice t o k now th at attempted murder i sn’t important,” stormed Mr Hinton. “The police don’t seem interested.” A Dyfed-Powys spokes- woman declined t o comment on the claims. She said: “Police are investigating the i nci- dent and are appealing for information f rom anyone who may h ave seen a nyone acti ng suspiciously on t he bridges over t he road at around 9.45pm o n Sunday 5 April.”
Two t axi d rivers w ere attacked in a s eries o f incidents in Gl asgow over the weekend of April 18-19. A pr ivate h ire dr iver was dragged fr om his vehicle by a c ouple i n Drumoyne, Govan. The 6 0-year-old h ad picked up two passen- gers and was attacked as he dropped them off in Kincraig Street. One of the passengers, a male, assaulted the driver with a blunt instru- ment a nd he was then dragged from his vehicle before being attacked by the pair who s tole a three-figure sum of cash. The driver s uffered injuries and was treated at the nearby Southern General Hospital. The male s uspect was around 1 7 to 2 1 ye ars old, slim, with short dark brown hair. The woman
was of a similar age. The Glasgow Evening Times reports that in another incident, a pri- vate h ire dr iver was seriously assaulted after confronting a man who threw a brick at his car. The 64-year-old man was driving his car in the South S ide o f t he c ity shortly after midnight on Saturday 18 April when he was confronted by a man standing in the road who then hurled a brick at the car. When the driver got out of his vehicle he w as seriously as saulted by the brick thug and had to be taken to Glasgow Victoria Infirmary before being later released. The sus
pect is
described as 5ft 10in tall, aged between 15 and 21, of medium b uild, pale complexion, with dark brown shaven hair.
MAY 2009
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