Taxi passenger spat at driver and battered him with her boot A TAXI passenger who launched a racist attack on a taxi driver in a dispute over the fare has been told her behaviour was disgusting.
Lauren Day spat at the driver and battered him with the heel of her boot during the late night bust-up on Exeter's Burnthouse Lane estate.
She swore at him and called him a foreigner and was abusive to police when they were called to the scene, Exeter Crown Court was told.
Day, 25, of Hazel Road, Exeter, denied racially aggravated battery but was found guilty at a trial last month.
She was jailed for four months, suspended for two years, ordered to do 120 hours' unpaid community work and pay £500 compensation and £330 costs by Recorder Jeremy Wright.
He told her: "This was a disgusting and criminal act. It was done when you were drunk against somebody providing a service to the public late at night."
Bathsheba Cassel, for the prosecution, said the attack happened at around 4.30 am on July 19 last year when taxi driver Ali Rezaie had taken Day and a female friend from the centre of Exeter to Burnthouse Lane.
There was a dispute over the fare and Day began shouting and swearing.
Miss Cassel said: "She called him a f***ing foreigner and spat in his face through the window of the taxi. When he got out she pushed him and hit him with the heel of her boot.
"He suffered minor injuries which had to be treated with steri strips in hospital. The police attended and the defendant was clearly intoxicated."
Day claimed she had thrown the shoe rather than used it as a weapon and denied making racist comments.
She was not represented and did not make any plea of mitigation. She passed the judge a sheaf of letters and references which showed she was currently in employment. She asked to pay the compensation and costs by instalments of £80 a month.
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