SHAME SHAME


SUSPENDED JAIL TERM FOR GUERNSEY DRIVER WHO LIED ABOUT ATTACK


A taxi driver who ‘whacked’ a drunken passenger with a weapon on Christ- mas Day 2017 and then lied about it to police has received a suspended sentence. According to the Guernsey


Press,


John, Chambers, 48, from St Martin, Guernsey, had de- nied maliciously wounding the pas- senger and then attempting to per- vert the course of justice, but was found guilty at trial in the Magistrates’


Court. He was sentenced to a suspended sen- tence of four months in prison for wound- ing and one month in prison, to run con- secutively, for at- tempting to pervert the course of justice. Judge Cherry Mc- Millen said she accepted that the male passenger had damaged the wing mirror of the taxi after he got into an argument


with


Chambers at the Weighbridge rank. Chambers then got a


weapon out of the car and struck the man twice in the head,


with cuts to his tem- ple and chin. The defendant then called the police, but did not mention hit- ting the passenger. It only came to light when the CCTV was viewed. Defence advocate Samantha Maindon- ald said her client had been a taxi driv- er for eight years and he had the right to go about his work without fear of vio-


leaving him


lence. Following the incident, Chambers’ taxi licence was part- suspended, meaning he could not work after 6.30pm. Chambers had three previous violent of- fences on his record. Judge McMillen said the latest charges were serious mat- ters. She praised Chambers for going to work on Christ- mas Day


and


providing a service, and noted that the passenger had ‘deli- berately and wilfully’ damaged the taxi.


REDCAR DRIVER HIT FAMILY PET WITH HIS CAR, DRAGGED HIM ALONG THE ROAD THEN DROVE OFF


A taxi driver hit a much-loved


pet


dog, dragged him along the street for 40 yards then left him for dead, a court has heard. The 12-month-old family pet named Bear collided with Andrew Feeney’s taxi on Sandsend Road in Redcar. Upsetting CCTV footage shown at Teesside Magis- trates’ Court show- ed the little black and white dog “pinned” to the front of Feeney’s taxi. After it drops to the floor, Feeney then makes off in his Elite Taxis vehicle. The stricken animal can then be seen lying on its back kicking its legs as people rushed to help. The spaniel cross Bedlington terrier was taken to a vet but his injuries were


70 Andrew Feeney


so severe he had to be put to sleep. The vet said he would have likely survived if


the taxi had


stopped straight after hitting him. Prosecutor Mitchell


Ann told the


court how Bear’s owner had been mowing the lawn shortly after 11am on September 25 last year when the dog clambered over the front garden wall. The owner watched him disappear down


the road but as he went to retrieve him, he saw Bear pinned to the front of the taxi. A Royal Mail postal worker on the street at the time said: “I heard a loud bang then about 40 yards on I saw the animal laid in the road. The taxi had not slowed at all, in fact I thought it had sped up. “The driver must have known he had hit something as the sound was loud in the post van which had the windows up and doors shut.” Bear’s owner said their ordeal had a “massive” emotional impact on the fami- ly. His partner had struggled to come to terms with the loss of their pet and criticised him for allowing the dog to escape. They had ended up separating


over their differ- ences, he said. In a statement he said: “I not only lost my beloved dog but my partner and mother of my six children.” Feeney, who had no previous


However Chambers had then ‘whacked’ the man twice with a weapon, which may have been a torch. “It was that excess force that led to the injuries,” she said. Judge McMillen also noted that the police had searched the taxi and not found a weapon, meaning that Chambers had got rid of it deliber- ately. “They would have found it, if it had been there,” she said. She said the sen- tence had to send a strong message.


Mmmm… It says


something for to- day’s justice system that this driver only got a suspended jail sentence for attack- ing his passenger and perverting the course of justice. And have you ever heard of a “part-suspension” of his taxi licence, res- tricting its hours – like some sort of curfew?! With his previous record of violent offences, surely he should never have been granted a badge in the first place. – Ed.


LIVERPOOL CABBIE HAD £60K WORTH OF COCAINE


convic-


tions, denied failing to stop after a road accident and failing to report it. He agreed he had driv- en along the road but said he did not hit the dog. Howev- er, magistrates said it was “inconceiv- able” that any other person could have been responsible for the accident. and found him guilty. He was fined £962 and eight penalty points were added to his licence. The


47-year-old,


from Redcar, was also ordered to pay court costs and charges of £489.


John Grace


A taxi driver who had a moneymaking sideline as the head of an organised crime gang was jailed last month after being caught with four kilos of cocaine in an Asda bag for life. John Grace, 58, was arrested by police on January 11, 2018 in Widnes. The drugs were said to have been worth in excess of £60,000. According to the Liverpool


Echo,


Grace, from Walton was convicted of supplying Class A


drugs and was sen- tenced to 12 years behind bars. Det Insp Nick Hugh- es said: “The sen- tencing of Grace is a result of a long-run- ning and complex operation in relation to suspected heroin and cocaine supply and money launder- ing offences, which we have been inves- tigating since May 2017. “We’ll continue, with the support of police forces across the North West and beyond, to target those suspected of being involved in the supply and dis- tribution of drugs, and put them before the courts. “We want Mersey- side to be a safe and secure county.


I


would encourage the public to report those involved in supplying drugs.”


MAY 2019


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  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104