Taxi Driver Online

geordieland rag]

A renowned thief who was banned from booking taxi journeys after repeatedly fleecing cabbies was back up to his old tricks.

Drug addict Christopher Stuart was jailed and given a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) back in 2019 after conning numerous taxi drivers into handing over cash before making off without paying his fares.

The 31-year-old used to play the sympathy card by pretending the money was for his children but instead spent it funding his crack cocaine habit.

The CBO barred Stuart from booking or travelling in any cabs but, less than a year after his prison release, he flouted the ban on three occasions, with two of those involving him revert to form and con drivers out of cash.

Stuart, of Turbinia Gardens, in High Heaton, will now spend Christmas behind bars after he was remanded in custody following a hearing at North Tyneside Magistrates' Court, where he pleaded guilty to two counts of making off without paying for a taxi fare, two counts of theft and three counts of breaching a CBO.

He also admitted separate charges of driving while disqualified, driving with no insurance and failing to give the identity of a driver.

Brian Payne, prosecuting, said Stuart first booked a taxi on September 15 this year before subsequently "playing the sympathy card" and conning the cabbie out of £20 and making off without paying the £38.50 fare.

Christopher Stuart was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court

Newcastle drug addict conned taxi drivers out of money 'for his children' - before fleeing without paying his fares

Hapless thief had Christmas tree under each arm as he tried to flee Byker supermarket

He was then caught inside another cab on October 22.

On November 24, Stuart again again fleeced a taxi driver out of £20 before fleeing without paying his £8.50 fare.

Mr Payne said: "There are 148 offences on the defendant's record. The headline here is breaching his Criminal Behaviour Order, which was imposed by Newcastle Crown Court in 2019.

"The reason it was imposed was to stop the defendant travelling in taxis. He's got a very long history of what it known as bilking. In other words, using taxis and making off without making payment.

"Often allied to that is where he spins the taxi drivers a sob story or story of necessity and they lend him money.

"However, he parts the taxi and the money goes with him."


The prosecutor added: "The taxi drivers give him money in good faith and, of course, he then makes off with the notes. It's a serial and fixed method of offending."

In relation to the driving while disqualified offence, magistrates were told that he was banned from the roads for six months earlier in the year after totting up penalty points but was caught behind the wheel of a Ford Mondeo in Newcastle on July 5.

The court heard that Stuart was a qualified plumber and had led a normal, law-abiding life until he turned 24 and developed a drug habit.

Michael Crowe, mitigating, said: "He was introduced to cocaine and it has been a very significant problem for him since that time.

"He takes crack cocaine, also. His behaviour completely changed. He has been unable to abstain from using drugs for any significant period of time.


"He's not someone who steals from shops or commits burglaries, his offending is all in relation to taxi drivers. It's something he's not proud of and he asks me to say today he's very sorry for his behaviour."

Magistrates deemed that their powers to finalise the case were insufficient and committed Stuart to Newcastle Crown Court for sentence on January 21.

In the meantime, he was remanded in custody.

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

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Horrible use of the word 'renowned'.

Definition is known or talked about by many people; famous.

Nothing famous about that scumbag.

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IDFIMH

Would not surprise me if his bottom was full of drugs and mini mobiles.

Or am I just being a cynic?

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IDFIMH

no I'd say you are most likely correct

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

We had a woman here who would regularly not pay for her taxi journeys. I had had enough of it so when she didn't pay a fare of £6.70 I took her to the small claims court to prove a point to her and the other drivers in town who had been ripped off by her. Obviously I won the case and she was served with a County Court Judgement. She didn't pay me but last week I got a letter from the court to say that she had been declared bankrupt. She has debts of over £61,000.

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Grandad,
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Well done.

Delighted you went through the proper channels rather than the sometimes used 'brick through the window' process.

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IDFIMH

The main reason that I went to the County Court was so that it sent a message to others that we were not going to roll over and have our tummies tickled and to show other drivers that it could be done.

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Grandad,
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Heaton conman who has fleeced taxi drivers dozens of times jailed after striking again

Cabbie conman Christopher Stuart has been jailed for fleecing taxi drivers yet again.

Stuart is banned from using taxis on Tyneside after racking up more than 50 convictions for making off without payment, as well as 11 for theft, in the past few years.

But he has been back up to his old tricks - even conning drivers out of further money by asking for change of £20 notes.

After getting them to give him lifts, often to buy drugs, he left without paying the fare or giving them the £20 back.

Now the 31-year-old, of Turbinia Gardens, High Heaton, Newcastle, has been jailed for 16 months for breaching his criminal behaviour order, theft and making off without payment.

Newcastle Crown Court heard it was in August 2019 that he was sentenced for similar matters and was given the order banning him from using cabs.

But on September 15 last year he rang Five Star Taxis and asked to be picked up in Jesmond.

He told the driver he wanted to go to Walker and during the journey he asked if he could give him change for a £20 note.

The cabbie obliged and told him he would add it to the fare.

In Walker, he got out and returned five minutes later and asked to go to Gateshead, where he got out again for around 15 minutes then asked to go back to Jesmond.

He then walked off, never to return.

On November 24 he ordered a taxi from LA Taxis at 4.15am, asking to be picked up in Heaton.

After asking to be taken to Walker, he asked the driver for change of a £20 note, saying he needed to give his brother some cash for his children's dinner money.

He got out in Walker, leaving a bank card as a surety.

The taxi driver followed him and parked beside him as he met two men, with one of them being heard to say to Stuart that "it's £10 a bag".

When he got back in the car, the victim confronted him about using his money to buy drugs, which he denied.

The driver asked him to pay back the £20 using his card but he entered the wrong pin number.

He took him back to Heaton and was then given a fictitious address where Stuart said he could go for payment of the £38 he owed.

Mark Atkins, prosecuting, said: "The complainant was later referred to an article in the local newspaper reporting him doing similar offending and the complainant recognised him in the article as the defendant."

Glenn Gatland, defending, said Stuart has previously worked as a plumber and labourer and has offended repeatedly because of his cocaine addiction.

He said: "It's not an attractive situation but that's the background to it.

"He desperately wants to get rid of this addiction."

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IDFIMH