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PostPosted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 8:14 pm 
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Now a passenger claiming self-defence, despite punching the driver through an open window ](*,)


Drunken property manager 'lost it big time' and punched taxi driver

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/tees ... g-16895826

Michael Robinson, 38, attacked the cabbie through his car window, putting him out of work for weeks and stopping him collecting fares at night

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Image: Teesside Live

A drunken reveller "lost it big time" and punched a taxi driver in his car, causing a brain bleed, just because he could not get a cab.

Self-employed property manager Michael David Robinson, 38, demanded "open the door, pick me up" at a Middlesbrough taxi rank.

He took inebriated umbrage when he found a taxi passenger door locked on Albert Road, central Middlesbrough at about 2.45am on May 5.

The driver, who already had a female passenger, refused to open the door for the impatient drunk, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Robinson got even angrier, kicking the door a passenger few times, shouting and screaming: "Open the door. Let me in. Give me your number."

Prosecutor Jon Harley said raging Robinson repeatedly kicked the driver's door as the driver tried to explain he had a fare.

Then he punched the driver to the face through his open window, hitting his nose and mouth.

The cabbie got out and "a scuffle ensued" where other taxi drivers came to his aid, the court was told.

He suffered a black left eye, a cut lip and blurred vision.

A CT scan revealed he had a small bleed on the brain which doctors said would settle in two to three weeks.

It forced the injured victim to take four weeks off work with no sick pay.

He returned to work but did not feel safe working at nights, the busiest periods, he lost confidence and worried about his picking up his attacker.

Robinson, of Kindersley Street, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, suggested to police that he acted in self-defence.

He later admitted assault causing actual bodily harm and possessing a small amount of cannabis found on him.

But he still claimed the taxi driver started the violence, finally abandoning that allegation at the prospect of the cabbie giving evidence against him.

He had a previous conviction for a serious assault and violent disorder as a youth.

'Mortified'

Kelleigh Lodge, defending, said: "Mr Robinson is genuinely sorry for his behaviour.

"He's ashamed of his actions and fully accepts that it was out of order and not a way to behave.

"He can't stress how sorry he is. He is quite mortified about the nature and the extent of the injuries."

She said he had curbed his drinking, socialising and taking cannabis and was seeking help.

At the time he was struggling financially as a self-employed man running his own property management business with two employees.

He since developed the business, gained two substantial contractors with housing providers and taken on two more members of staff.

He had a partner and young child who relied on him, added Ms Lodge.

Sentence

Judge Deborah Sherwin told Robinson: "You'd been out drinking. You were wanting to get a taxi home and you'd been unable to do so.

"And you lost your temper on the driver of this taxi, losing it big-time.

"That caused the taxi driver to suffer serious injury. He appears to have suffered a bleed on the brain.

"This was an unpleasant incident. He was simply carrying out his work. He is somebody who was providing a service for the public. You were drunk.

"You have shown you are somebody who is capable of keeping out of trouble.

"I've come to the conclusion that I can just - and it is only just - properly suspend the prison sentence that is inevitable in this case."

Robinson was given a 35-week jail term suspended for 18 months with 150 hours' unpaid work and 15 days' rehabilitation activity.

He was ordered to pay £2,000 to the victim.


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 9:21 pm 
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Quote:
Robinson, of Kindersley Street, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, suggested to police that he acted in self-defence.

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