IN THE NEWS


WOMAN KEPT QUIET ABOUT DEAD FLATMATE TO USE HIS TAXI ACCOUNT


A woman lived with a flat mate’s dead body for five days so she could use his free taxi account, a court has heard.


Lisa Collins, 35, kept quiet over the death of housemate Peter Mc- Donald so she could cash in on the free cab rides. Police called round to their shared house to find Mr McDonald’s decomposing corpse in a bedroom.


The court heard that Mr McDonald, 65, had been dead in the house for at least five days. He had an account with


a local taxi firm and Collins used it to get around in the days after his death.


The Prosecutor said: “When police attended they found Collins in the front room wearing nothing but knickers and a T-shirt. Inside the bedroom the body was seen by a police officer - it was badly decomposing. The door was only open about one inch but the police officer had seen all he needed.” According to the West- ern Daily Mail, Cardiff Crown Court was told Mr McDonald probably


died of natural causes. Collins, of Newport, admitted preventing a lawful and decent bur- ial from taking place. Judge Neil Bidder told her: “It is almost certain Peter McDonald died of natural causes. But you may have gained a small economic benefit from hiding the fact of his death and using a taxi account in his name. What you did was not only illegal but repugnant to most right thinking people in soci- ety.”


Collins was detained under the Mental Health Act.


SUNDERLAND FIRM COMES TO STUDENTS’ AID


Stranded students have been thrown a transport lifeline after a taxi company agreed to help get them home safely.


Sunderland’s biggest cab firm, Station Taxis, has launched a pio- neering scheme to help those who have spent too much on a night out.


The firm has agreed to provide a “free” ride home for any student who runs out of money while socialising, under a deal agreed with Sun- derland University’s Students’ Union. The scheme, formally


launched as part of Freshers’ Week, re- quires students to hand over their Stu- dent Union Member- ship Card and sign an account at the end of the journey to confirm its cost.


The Students’ Union will reimburse the taxi firm and then receive the fare from the stu- dent when they go to reclaim their member- ship card.


It is thought the Stu- dent Emergency Taxi Service, which will run from September to June, is the only one of its kind in the UK.


Trevor Hines, of Sta- tion Taxis, told the Sunderland Echo: “The aim of the scheme is to ensure students reach their digs safely and do not put themselves at risk of harm.


“In the past, they may have had to walk home, which, late at night and in a city they don’t know, could be fraught with difficulties. Now, they simply call us.” The service is open to all Sunderland Univer- sity’s estimated 17,500 students with a current Student Union mem- bership card.


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DURHAM PENSIONER’S TERRIFYING ORDEAL IN STOLEN TAXI


A teenager left a trail of destruction after racing around a busy car park in a stolen taxi with a terrified pensioner sit- ting in the back, a youth court was told. The Northern Echo reports that the 14- year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, caused about £15,000 in dam- age after smashing into 12 cars at the Tesco Extra Store, in Newton Aycliffe. Debra Jones, prosecut- ing, said that the taxi driver, Trudy Linsley, had gone to the store to pick up Mrs Paylor and her husband. Mrs Paylor got into the car and as her husband returned the shopping trolley, Ms Linsley had got out to close the boot properly.


“In a second”, the youth jumped in and drove off at speed. Ms Linsley ran after the taxi in a panic and tried to stop it. She saw it crash into the side of a car being parked in a bay and then driven towards her.


The youth continued driving around the car park, damaging 12 cars. At one point, at a mini-roundabout near the exit, the taxi turned back into the car park at more than 30mph. The youth ran off, but was caught by a mem- ber of staff. The 77-year-old pas- senger, Una Paylor, had screamed at the boy to stop, magis- trates sitting in Peterlee were told. She was taken to hospital


with whiplash injuries. Asked by police what he would do if he was faced with a similar sit- uation again, the boy said he would not do it in a car park “because when you are in a car park you can’t drive very fast.”


He admitted to police that he was unaware that Mrs Paylor was in the back when he took the taxi.


Sentencing the youth to a 12-month deten- tion and training order for aggravated vehicle taking and dangerous driving, bench chair- woman Pauline Turner said: “You are a per- sistent offender and these offences were committed while you were on bail and sub- ject to a rehabilitation order.”


PRISONERS BEING TAKEN TO COURT IN BLACK CABS


Black cabs are taking prisoners from jail to court after a computer system designed to organise pick-ups by secure vehicles failed. Since the start of their contract in September, court transport compa- ny Serco, which is paid £420 million for the contract to transport prisoners in secure vans, has used at least 80 taxis to transport ‘low risk’ prisoners. Facing fresh criticism after the situation emerged, FTSE 100 company Serco last month conceded that it was suffering “transi- tional problems” with IT systems used to arrange journeys, and the situation was “not ideal”.


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When the new comput- er programme desig- ned to organise pick- up and drop-off times between jails and the courts failed, prison chiefs were forced to call taxis at the last minute in order to get


inmates to court. The inmates have been forced to sit between two prison officers while hand- cuffed in the back of the cab, raising ques- tions about security. Critics called for an inquiry into the arrangement, which evidently was not approved by the Min- istry of Justice beforehand. Tory MP Patrick Mer- cer told the Mail on Sunday: “A great deal of money has been spent on the Serco contract and the idea that prisoners can be moved around in black cabs, and that security can be greatly compromised like this, is outrageous.


“A taxi has no inbuilt security features and is extremely vulnera- ble. It also sends out completely the wrong message to have pris- oners ferried about in the luxury of a black cab.”


The company says it has only used taxis when the prisoner “is compliant, non-violent, and does not present an identified risk of escape.” The company said it had used the taxis to “optimise capacity for the trans- port of higher risk prisoners’’ and “to ensure that certain cat- egories of vulnerable prisoners - such as juveniles and females - arrive back at their allo- cated Young Offenders Institute or prisons as early in the evening as possible.”


Assurances were given by Serco that the situa- tion would be resolved in a few weeks.


How amazingly unsur- prising that, of all the sources that disclosed information about this particular news item, not one of these men- tioned or even intimated that there may be some risk to the drivers of these taxis. Say no more...


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