ALL IN A DAY’S WORK


BELFAST CABBIE APPEALS HIS THREE-YEAR TAXI BAN OVER SHARED SEX VIDEO


A taxi driver who shared videos of two people engaging in “intimate foreplay” is appealing his three- year ban. According to the Belfast Telegraph, Andrew Tortolani was handed a two-month prison sentence last December, suspended for two years, after he shared the clips. Three recordings were initially sent to ten people in a WhatsApp group, but within days they had been seen “globally”. Tortolani, 56, who entered guilty pleas to the improper use of a telecommunication network, was fined £350 and ordered to pay a £15 offender levy. A prosecuting lawyer told the court that in July last year a woman contacted the police to report she had been made aware “that a taxi driver had apparently shared videos of her and her date being intimate in the back of a taxi”. He explained how the videos, which had been recorded after the female passenger and her date had been collected by Tortolani from a Belfast bar, had been captured on a camera facing back towards the rear seats. The videos were not played to the court, but they are understood to show two people in the back seat engaging in a sex act,


with


Tortolani in the foreground. When the male passenger pays the fare at the end of the video, he leaves a tip with the driver, who is heard saying the journey was “cheaper than a room”. A lawyer said the people in the videos “claimed not to have known they were being filmed” and did not “give permission for the films


PHTM OCTOBER 2022


to be shared”. Tortolani, from Portadown, was arrested and interviewed. He confirmed no one else had control of the footage, that he was the driver of the taxi and that he had sent the videos to a private WhatsApp group of ten friends without any expectation that the videos would be sent on. “He didn’t intend to cause any distress by doing so,” said his lawyer. In Downpatrick Court, it was revealed that the Driver and


Vehicle Agency initially imposed a 12-month restriction on the defendant. When he appealed, it was upped to three years. A lawyer for the DVA said it issued one-year bans for serious matters and three-year bans for the most serious matters. “When this was first dealt with, it was deemed a serious offence, but that was appealed. Internally, it was considered a most serious offence and the penalty increased to three years,” he told District Judge Amanda Brady,


adding


Tortolani wished to appeal that. The judge adjourned the case to fix a date for the appeal.


DUO STOLE TAXI AT KNIFEPOINT BEFORE CAUSING M1 CRASH


South Yorkshire Police has launched an investigation into an aggravated robbery,


which


subsequently led to a collision on the M1.


The incident took place on


Wednesday, September 14 when it it is reported that a taxi driver picked a man and woman up in Edenthorpe, Doncaster, to take them to Barnsley. Launching a public appeal on Wednesday 28 September, a South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “As the taxi driver was waiting at the lights at Junction 33 to join the M1 northbound at about 5.33pm, one of the suspects got a knife out and caused the victim to get out of the vehicle. “The suspects have then made off with the vehicle, a grey BMW 520D.


“It is reported that shortly after, at 5.37pm, the vehicle was involved in a collision with several other vehicles at Junction 36 of the M1 northbound towards Barnsley. “Fortunately, no-one was injured in the collision. “One suspect,


a 26-year-old


woman from Doncaster, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of robbery and later bailed as investigations continue. “Officers are now keen to identify the man, who made off on foot from the scene.” Anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information, in particular anyone that may have dash-cam footage of either the victim getting out of the car or the collision on the M1, is asked to please come forward.


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