Taxi Driver Online

Daily Post (Liverpool)

July 1, 2006, Saturday
North Wales Edition

HEADLINE: WALES: Gun put to head of fraud officer

A MAN who put a gun to the head of a North Wales benefits fraud officer and threatened to kill him was yesterday jailed. Gunman Ian Powell pushed his way into the home of Richard Hughes, shouting the worker had ruined his life.

Mr Hughes, who did not know the air rifle was unloaded, feared he was going to be shot as his wife and children looked on, Mold Crown Court heard. A judge warned attacks on public servants would not be tolerated by the courts.

Powell admitted assault and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and was jailed for 18 months. He had confiscated the air rifle from one of his own children.

The 44-year-old of Villiers Street in Wrexham was working as a taxi driver but being investigated for claiming benefits. He believed Mr Hughes had reported him.

The court also heard Powell's wife and the victim previously worked together and Powell, said to have suffered a break-down at the time, also feared Hughes was interested in his wife. But John Hedgecoe, defending, said Powell now accepted nothing was going on. Judge John Rogers QC said: "People who come in to contact with the public are becoming more and more vulnerable to attack.

"They are entitled to expect that when attacked, the courts will mark the gravity of such offences with a prison sentence," he said. Ed Beltrami, prosecuting, said Powell arrived at the door saying "do you know who I am?" Once inside the house, Mr Hughes realised Powell had a gun pointed towards him. "Mr Hughes thought that he was going to be shot," explained Mr Beltrami.
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