Taxi Driver Online

It's not actually Stoke, but near enough

I originally used Staffs (abbreviation for Staffordshire), but thought that here it might be confused with staff's

'Newcastle' uses up too many characters, though, and in fact here you would need to use Newcastle-under-Lyme to avoid the obvious confusion.

In fact these pieces in the Stoke Sentinel usually refer only to Newcastle, but I usually amend them to read Newcastle-under-Lyme to avoid any possible confusion

Not everyone knows the geography of the whole country as well as some people on here


These two brothers batter taxi driver in £10 fare row as birthday bash descends into violence

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/st ... er-3573347

Nicky and Wayne Zwetschnikow assaulted the victim in Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre while on a night out


Image: Stoke Sentinel

Two brothers attacked a taxi driver during a night out celebrating their nephew’s 21st birthday.

Nicky Zwetschnikow punched and kicked the victim after getting into a row about a fare - and his younger brother, Wayne, then joined in with the assault.

North Staffordshire Justice Centre heard the argument started after the brothers’ nephew and his girlfriend got into the victim's cab at the taxi rank in Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre.

Prosecutor Liz Rider said: “The couple were waiting for another member of their party. The driver said he would have to start the meter so it was decided they would get out.

“The driver was then sitting in his vehicle when he was approached by Nicky Zwetschnikow, who asked him for a receipt and said the driver had charged them £10 upfront.

“The driver explained that he hadn’t charged them anything but had said that’s what the fare would have been.

"The older defendant started to remonstrate with the driver. He said, ‘I have got your registration number and I will call the police’. The driver said he would need to call the police.”

The court heard, as the victim attempted to call the police, Nicky Zwetschnikow hit him and tried to grab his phone. The driver was punched twice and kicked as he was sitting in his cab, unable to defend himself.

Ms Rider added: “The younger defendant then became involved and punched the complainant, who was feeling dizzy. He said the older man was then taken away by others but returned and punched him to the forehead.”

Police attended and the brothers were arrested. In his interview, 42-year-old mechanical fitter Nicky Zwetschnikow told police he had drunk eight to 10 pints and a couple of shots while out for a ‘family occasion’.

Gas engineer Wayne Zwetschnikow told police he'd had around five pints and initially denied doing anything wrong. But the attack was caught on CCTV and, when shown the footage, accepted he was involved in the attack.

Nicky Zwetschnikow, of Tuscan Way, Newcastle, and Wayne Zwetschnikow, of Dimsdale Parade West, Newcastle, both pleaded guilty to assault on October 27.

Angela Trafford, mitigating on behalf of both men, said: “They are extremely remorseful, embarrassed and ashamed.

“Both are married with children and they are more worried about the impact this will have on their families than themselves.”

Deputy District Judge Steven Jonas said Nicky Zwetschnikow’s behaviour warranted a more serious sentence than his brother’s. He told him: “You instigated this attack – you were the main attacker. It was a sustained attack with several punches thrown and a kick by you. In my view it clearly crosses the custody threshold.”

Nicky Zwetschnikow was handed a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to complete 100 hours unpaid work. Wayne Zwetschnikow received a 12-month community order with 100 hours unpaid work. They must each pay £200 compensation to the victim, plus court costs and charges.

The deputy district judge told Wayne Zwetschnikow: “You seem to have blindly weighed in to an incident involving your brother. Your involvement here was clearly less. Fortunately the taxi driver was not seriously injured.”

As I said in the other thread, the waiting for a customer bit can be very tricky in terms of activating the meter. And that was maybe more to do with pre-booked jobs than rank work.

But this one here demonstrates that even in the rank scenario when to activate the meter can be troublesome. I mean, we've all been there - one or two of them get in, maybe get out again, or fanny about for several minutes before they all get in. To go half a mile away

And in the meantime, cars behind you are making off with £30 runs

Sometimes it's just unthinking confusion on their part, often they just want to secure a cab before they're ready in all the cars disappear. But kick the meter off, and all hell can break loose

good job we don't have any Newcastle drivers on here they would be up in arms at being describes as STOKE DRIVERS

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