Taxi Driver Online

Beccles Goldline Travel trial: Taxi driver hears loud bang

A taxi driver who worked for a travel business which was allegedly subjected to a six-year campaign of violence by a disgruntled former employee has described hearing a loud bang before the windows of his vehicle shattered.

Giving evidence the driver, who worked for Goldline Travel which was based near Beccles, said on the first occasion in December 2015 he was parked in a car park in Beccles when he heard a bang and saw a rear window of the taxi had shattered.

Three months later in March 2016 he had an elderly passenger in his taxi when he heard a “popping” sound and saw a rear window had shattered.

He said he thought someone had shot at the window because of similar incidents being reported by other Goldline taxi drivers.

The driver told a jury at Ipswich Crown Court said that in June 2016 he was driving in Beccles when he heard a loud bang and saw a rear window had shattered.

Before the court are Adrian Ling, 63, of Woodside, Beccles, and Daniel Garrison, 34, of Danforth Drive, Woodbridge, who have denied conspiring to commit criminal damage to property belonging to Goldline Travel between December 2012 and November 2019.

Ling has also denied four offences of having an air rifle with intent to commit criminal damage between 2013 and 2019.

It has been alleged that during a campaign of violence by Ling and Garrison against Goldline Travel, which operates a small fleet of coaches and taxis from its premises in Ellough, near Beccles, its vehicles were repeatedly vandalised, and, on several occasions, taxis were shot at while picking up and carrying fares.

The court has heard that Ling started working for Goldline in 2008 as a mechanic and was sacked by its owner Ian Trussler in 2012.

“It is clear that he was very angry about being sacked and it’s the prosecution case that he has harboured a significant personal grudge against Ian Trussler and Goldline and has carried out a sustained vendetta against them,” alleged Andrew Thompson, prosecuting.

He claimed that Ling, who was convicted of stealing diesel from Goldline but subsequently acquitted on appeal, started the vendetta following his dismissal while Garrison allegedly joined the conspiracy in 2016.

The trial continues.

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IDFIMH

Damage caused by mechanic, 63, who waged a seven-year 'vendetta' against taxi firm who sacked him - including smashed windows and paint-splattered cabs

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ifles.html (loads of pictures on this link)



A mechanic waged a violent seven-year ‘vendetta’ against his former employer after he was sacked for allegedly stealing diesel.

Adrian Ling caused up to £300,000 of damage as he targeted coaches and taxis owned by the private hire firm in around 92 incidents.

Goldline Travel was left with a £40,000 bill in a single night after three coaches were targeted and left with extensive damage to windows, tyres and seats.

Taxi windows were shot out with an air rifle while passengers were inside and owner Ian Trussler was headbutted by Ling when they bumped into each other at a supermarket.

Ling, 63, is now facing jail after he and an accomplice, Daniel Garrison, 34, were convicted on Wednesday of conspiring to commit criminal damage between December 2012 and November 2019 following a two-month trial.

Ling was also convicted of four offences of having an air rifle with intent to commit criminal damage.

Asked after the verdict if he was relieved the reign of terror was over, Mr Trussler, 51, said: ‘You and me both.’

The delay in bringing his former employee to justice was because he had an accomplice, he added.

‘[It was whether] they could place him in the area at the time when different things were happening,’ Mr Trussler said.

Ling began working at Goldline Travel, in Ellough, near Beccles, Suffolk, in 2008 but was sacked four years later after he was accused of taking diesel – although a conviction for the offence was subsequently overturned on appeal.

Opening the trial at Ipswich Crown Court, prosecutor Andrew Thompson said: ‘It is clear that he was very angry about being sacked and it’s the prosecution case that he has harboured a significant personal grudge against Ian Trussler and Goldline and has carried out a sustained vendetta against them.’

Three Goldline coaches that were parked in Suffolk were vandalised, with smashed windows, slashed tyres and ripped seats that were also doused in paint thinner and diesel.

Keys were stolen from the depot during a burglary in May 2013 and staff found a birthday card with the message: ‘Ha ha. You’re f***** now.’

General manager Claire Tillett told the court the keys had been taken from hooks in the kitchen area and the card left on one of the hooks had a picture of an unflushed toilet. She said she recognised the handwriting as being Ling’s.

In October that year, Mr Trussler was picking up a coach from another company when he saw Ling, who hurled abuse at him and warned: ‘I’m going to smash your vehicles up till the day you die.’

A year later the men happened to be at the same supermarket in Beccles and Ling headbutted his former boss, causing him to fall to the ground. He denied battery but was convicted after a trial.

Goldline taxi drivers also reported several instances of windows shattering in their cars as they drove in the area.

One driver described how something hit her under the armpit and left her in pain after she heard a loud bang and the front passenger window smashed.

A male taxi driver reported he was shot at on three occasions between December 2015 and June 2016, including once when he had an elderly passenger in the car. The rear window was smashed each time.

Ling, of Beccles, and Garrison, of Woodbridge, will be sentenced in January.

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IDFIMH

I think he should have been tried for a far more serious offence than that.

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Sacked mechanic jailed for six-year revenge campaign against Suffolk taxi firm


Adrian Ling, 63, has been jailed for eight years

A disgruntled mechanic who was sacked by a taxi firm has been jailed for carrying out a violent revenge campaign against his former employers.

Adrian Ling, 63, fired airguns at taxis from passing cars, threw corrosive liquid over paintwork and slashed tyres causing damage totalling £136,000.

Ipswich Crown Court heard that Ling, from Brampton in Suffolk, had worked for Goldline Travel at Ellough near Beccles before he was dismissed in 2012.

Following his sacking a six-year campaign of criminal damage against the company's vehicles began.

From 4 March 2013 to 18 May 2019 police recorded 83 cases of damage against the firm.


A broken window in one of the vehicles owned by Goldline Travel

Ling had denied the offences but was found guilty, alongside his co-defendant Daniel Garrison, on 1 November 2023, following a two-month trial.

Garrison, of Danforth Drive in Framlingham, is due to be sentenced at a later date.

The court heard the pair had been tailing taxis in cars and shooting at them with air rifles, shattering windows and damaging bodywork.

On four occasions passengers were in the cars being shot at but they escaped unhurt, although a driver was injured during another attack when something was thrown at a car.

After a painstaking investigation, police discovered Ling and Garrison had been registering cars under fake names and using cloned number plates to avoid detection.

CCTV footage from cameras at Moors Industrial Estate in Ellough showed a red Ford Focus traced to Garrison speeding away after a window in a Goldline taxi was shattered.

Police believe an air gun was used to shoot out the glass.

On 24 June 2016 an off-duty police officer in Beccles spotted Garrison driving a blue Ford KA vehicle behind a Goldline Travel taxi with a man crouched down in the rear passenger seat.

When officers searched the homes and cars of the pair in September 2016 Ling and Garrison were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

Police seized two air rifles, metal wheel bearings, tapered rollers believed to be the projectiles used as ammunition to fire from air rifles, mobile phones and a cloned registration plate.

Two shortwave radio scanners were also seized, suggesting the pair had used these to secretly monitor communications between Goldline Travel call dispatchers and taxi drivers, allowing Ling and Garrison to pinpoint the location of taxis to attack.


Cars were also covered in corrosive liquid, and wing mirrors were smashed.

Following these initial arrests, detectives continued to carry out numerous inquiries and gather evidence which ultimately led to both defendants being charged in connection with the offences.

Det Con Andrew Thawley said: “This has been a long and complicated investigation with Ling and Garrison taking many steps to try to conceal their crimes against Goldline Travel.

“Extensive inquiries were carried out and, ultimately, the evidence gathered from sources including CCTV, ANPR, forensic analysis (DNA and firearms), communications data, mobile phone records and witness testimony, presented a compelling case linking them to the incidents.

“This investigation reflects a considerable level of teamwork and I would like to give credit to the work done by officers from Beccles Safer Neighbourhood Team in particular.”

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IDFIMH

8 years from arrest to sentence.

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IDFIMH