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St Ives taxi driver attacked by fare-dodging customer
A TAXI driver from St Ives has told how he was attacked by a fare-dodging customer who threatened to stab him. Anisur Rahman, 31, said he still suffers from panic attacks and was unable to work for two weeks following the incident at 10.45pm on Saturday, August 10. The attacker, believed to be about 20, repeatedly punched Mr Rahman and kicked him in the head while he lay on the floor.
The driver had taken the man and a woman 20 miles from St Ives to Lichfield Road, in Cambridge, but was attacked three times as he confronted the pair who had refused to pay the £30 fare. Mr Rahman, of Redmoor Close, was taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, with head, shoulder and arm injuries and was released the next day.
He said: “I got out of the car and said ‘where are you going? You need to pay’ and he said he had a knife and was going to stab me if I didn’t go. “I told them that if they didn’t have money now they could pay later but they told me to go and then all of a sudden he punched me.”
Mr Rahman said he chased after the pair on foot and was attacked again. When Mr Rahman grabbed hold of the man, he agreed to pay the fare but as he walked back to his car he was attacked from behind and knocked to the floor. “He stood over me and kept punching me. When I rolled over, because I couldn’t take any more, he kicked me in the back of the head,” said Mr Rahman.
The man was white, 5ft 10in, and was wearing a blue striped shirt. He ran away before another taxi driver arrived and called an ambulance. Mr Rahman, who works for Tudor Taxis, in Huntingdon, said that the man and the woman – 5ft 5in with dark hair – may have been thrown out of a St Ives club that evening.
A police spokesman said: “We are investigating reports of an assault on a taxi driver in Lichfield Road, at about 11pm on August 10 and officers are carrying out local enquiries.”
INFORMATION: Witnesses can call officers on 101.
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