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Update on CC's earlier story but I'm being lazy and not searching out original
Cabbie who attacked hospital parking attendant stripped of taxi licence
Taxi driver Wayne Hewitson from Carlisle leaves Carlisle magistrates court after admitting to assaulting a car park attendent at the InfirmaryTUESDAY 17th JANUARY 2017. 50086775F001.jpg
A CABBIE who attacked a hospital parking attendant outside a hospital has had his taxi licences revoked.
Carlisle City Council's licensing regulatory panel stripped 51-year-old Wayne Hewitson of his private hire and hackney carriage licences after hearing about the attack outside The Cumberland Infirmary.
Hewitson was infuriated when the attendant photographed his car.
He reacted violently, launching what a court heard had been “a sustained physical assault” on the man, repeatedly kicking him before pushing him to the ground and continuing the attack.
The panel was also told of how Hewitson was given a police caution in 2013 for using offensive language towards children on a school bus that he had been driving.
As a result, Cumbria County Council refused to let him continue such work.
In February of last year, officials also became aware that Hewitson had obtained a taxi licence from Copeland Council without declaring a relevant medical condition – angina.
OOPS !!!
The Carlisle panel had suspended his taxi licence in 2014 because of the condition.
When his failure to declare the condition to Copeland came to light, in April of last year, they too suspended his licence.
In an attempt to keep his Carlisle licences, Hewitson penned a lengthy written argument, attempting to explain why he carried out the common assault outside the Cumberland Infirmary last December.
He wrote: “I have been under a lot of emotional stress concerning my own health, having COPD (a serious lung condition), and also my wife, she having been diagnosed with bipolar.”
He explained that in December, his father in law had died and that on the day of the assault he had gone to the hospital to support his son and grandson, who was there for emergency treatment.
Referring to the assault, Mr Hewitson said: “This was totally out of character. I have no previous convictions of this nature as a taxi driver.
"I have never had any complaints about the way I conduct myself.”
The panel was also shown paperwork which confirmed that Hewitson was fined for a common assault in 1995, and cautioned for a public order offence in 2012.
For the assault last December, magistrates imposed a suspended 18 week jail term.
Hewitson's defence lawyer had told the court: “Parking, not only in Carlisle, but also nationally, is an issue.
"Very often people at hospital are there under stress as patients or relatives and in these circumstances tempers boil over.
“He pulled up, saw his car photographed, and in his emotionally charged state he reacted in a way that was very out of character.”
The victim had earlier told the court: “I've never been attacked before.
"I've been on this job for 21 months and now feel anxious working by myself.”
17 February 2017 7:00AM
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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector
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