Tamworth taxi driver threatened with knife told "drive you b***h or I'll stab you."A "COURAGEOUS" female taxi driver from Tamworth who was threatened with a knife in the middle of the night drove to her base to summon help.
Nick Singh and two other men ambushed the brave cabbie, whom the Herald has chosen not to name, ordering her to drive them to Birmingham.
Singh threatened to stab her if she refused.
Stafford Crown Court heard how the taxi driver had been sent to Argyle Street to pick up a fare. But instead, the men, who emerged from the shadows and got in to her taxi, said Mr Paul Farrow, prosecuting.
Singh climbed in to the front passenger seat and straight away became abusive, calling her a "b***h". He then produced a long kitchen knife that was waved towards her. He threatened: "Drive, you b***h or I'll stab you."
But the cabbie proceeded slowly to a taxi base in Glascote Road – locally known as Acorn Taxis – and sounded her horn. All three men fled.
Singh, aged 20, of Lauder Close in Willenhall, was sent to youth custody for 42 months after admitting charges of blackmail and possessing a blade.
Judge Simon Tonking told him: "This was a shocking experience for the taxi driver. She genuinely feared for her life. Very courageously she drove to a taxi base where she was able to summon help.
"You terrified this lady – very courageously she is determined to keep driving a taxi."
In a victim impact statement she said she had been a taxi driver for 17 years and although affected by the incident she was not giving it up.
Mr Farrow said the offences were committed just before 5am on April 21 last year. Singh was arrested the following month and the victim picked him out in an identity parade in June.
Mr Sanjeev Sharma, defending, said: "This really is very serious offending which has had a lasting impact on the complainant. He acknowledges she must have been absolutely petrified."
Singh was determined to turn his life around.
source:
http://www.thisistamworth.co.uk/Tamwort ... z2PLc0ZH00
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