'You have three seconds to open the door or I'll kill you...' - Penniless passenger locked in taxi makes this threat before hitting cabbie over head with phonehttps://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/st ... or-2851720Rachel Colquhoun must pay £100 compensation to the cabbieMum Rachel Colquhoun struck a taxi driver over the head with a mobile phone - after he refused to drive any further without receiving his fare.
The cabbie had locked his doors and called the police after fearing the 27-year-old defendant and her friend did not have any money.
But he was then grabbed by the defendant's friend before Colquhoun struck him over the head with the phone.
And Colquhoun, of no fixed address, was further arrested when she made a racist remark about the taxi driver to the police.
Now she has been handed a suspended jail term - despite telling magistrates: "I would rather go to prison".
North Staffordshire Justice Centre heard the defendant had been collected from Chell Heath Road, Chell Heath, on the evening of February 26.
Prosecutor Lynne Warrington said: "The complainant is a taxi driver who was working when he was asked to collect a fare.
"They went to a number of different cash machines and when they said they wanted to go to Hanley he said he wanted to be paid first because of the request to go to different cash machines. He was concerned they didn't have the fare.
"He locked the door to stop them running away. The defendant said: 'you have three seconds to open the door or I will kill you'. He dialled 999.
"The defendant's friend threw her purse on to the seat and put her hands on his face and the defendant took his phone off him. The driver describes the defendant hitting him on the top of the head around three times, striking him with the bottom of the phone.
"He got out and waited for the police. The two women got out and started to move away, he tried to stop the defendant running off. The police attended at 7pm and the defendant was arrested."
Colquhoun, formerly of Salkeld Place, Chell, was convicted of a charge of assault by beating following a trial. She admitted using racially-aggravated language.
Simon Leech, mitigating, told magistrates that the defendant found a cash machine off Smallthorne roundabouts was not working.
He said: "They asked to go to another cash machine and rather than go to Hanley down Town Road he went down Moorland Road and stopped on Waterloo Road where there was a cash machine in a supermarket.
"The two ladies were alarmed by the diversion and my client found it quite distressing to find herself in this situation. They were asking to be let out because they didn't like the situation.
"The defendant felt very vulnerable. Everything you have heard is in the context of that unusual journey in the early evening and the driver parked in a location she was unfamiliar with.
"The other person was never prosecuted. The defendant is known to mental health services. She is quite a vulnerable individual."
Magistrates handed the defendant a 12-week prison term, suspended for 18 months. She must also pay an £80 fine, £620 costs, a £115 victim surcharge and £100 compensation to the taxi driver.
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