Father-of-three is spared jail
http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/west-l ... -25190730/
A MAN who 'saw red' and beat up a taxi driver over a £4 cab fare was spared jail this week.
Scott O'Callaghan, 42, of Weymouth Gardens, Hayes, was given a suspended prison sentence at Isleworth Crown Court for the attack on Buzlar Rashid.
During the prolonged assault he hurled racist abuse at the cab driver before punching him several times in the head and chasing him down the road.
The judge told O'Callaghan that he had narrowly escaped a custodial sentence.
On June 2, the 42-year-old father-of-three took the Sky taxi from the Lees Road area of Hillingdon to the junction of Weymouth Road and Goshawk Gardens. A row broke out about the fare, said to be between £4 and £6.
O'Callaghan told his victim it was too much, and that he had been a minicab driver himself and 'knew the tricks'.
He was said to have racially abused Mr Rashid before stealing his mobile phone, attacking him and driving off in his cab.
O'Callaghan was charged with racially aggravated assault, driving without a licence and the theft of the phone.
In a letter to the judge, O'Callaghan's estranged wife said that despite previous convictions for violence, he was 'potentially a caring family man' with anger problems.
Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson said to O'Callaghan: "I told you at the end of the trial, when the jury convicted you, that I take a dim view of racial abuse, particularly racial abuse connected with violence.
"Mr Rashid was attacked while he was doing his job, in the early hours of the morning when he was particularly vulnerable, and the fact you saw red, or had a red mist, is of little consolation to him.
"I am not going to send you to prison but you have had a narrow escape."
On top of a 40-week jail term suspended for six months, O'Callaghan was banned from driving for six months and put under an electronic tagging curfew.
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