Taxi Driver Online

Police investigating after three taxis destroyed in early morning blaze in Brechin

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/lo ... n-brechin/



Police have launched an investigation after three taxis were destroyed in an early morning blaze in Brechin.

Firefighters were called to a car park in the town’s East Mill Road shortly after 5am on Wednesday.

In a post online, Blair Meston of ABK Cabs, suggested the blaze had been started deliberately and offered a “substantial” reward for any information which could assist police.

Police Scotland said officers were investigating the fire and were treating it as “unexplained”.

Firefighters from the Brechin station found a Fiat, a Peugeot and another vehicle ablaze. The fire took around half an hour to put out.

Fire was ‘arson’, says boss

In a post online, which has since been shared more than 400 times, Mr Meston thanked people who have sent him messages of support.

He wrote: “As some of you may have heard three of our taxis were extensively damaged in an arson attack in the early hours of this morning.

“They were parked in the Matrix car park.

“Someone out there knows who did this and we’re happy to pay a substantial reward for any information that leads to the capture/conviction of this person.

“Any information treated in the strictest confidence.

“Also if there’s anyone in the area with CCTV that would be very helpful.

“Police are following lines of inquiry but we’d really like this resolved ASAP.

“We’d also like to thank everyone for all the messages and support we’ve received this morning.”

Investigations ongoing

A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Officers were called to assist the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service following a report that a number of vehicles were on fire at a premises on East Mill Road, Brechin, at around 5.15am on Wednesday, January 6.

“Investigations are ongoing into the cause of the fire, which is currently being treated as unexplained. Nobody was injured as a result.

“Anyone with any information to assist the investigation should contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 0355 of January 6.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were in attendance in Brechin to three cars on fire in a car park in East Mill Road.

“We received the call at 5.05am and a pump from Brechin attended.

“We received a stop message at 5.37am and left it in the hands of the police.”

Wouldn't really expect this in Dundee, never mind St Andrews, never mind Brechin, which is a small 'sleepy' town of 7,000 people. In fact it's where I was brought up, where my maw and paw lived until they died, and where my two sisters still live, and I used to drive up there regularly before Covid.

Of course, despite its image, it's always had its fair share of headbangers. Just over a year ago, for example, a 23-year-old girl was stabbed to death in a 'frenzied attack' by her ex-boyfriend

And about ten years ago, two East European males living in Brechin murdered and dismembered an East European woman, whose head was found on a nearby beach by two young girls

A similar town a few miles away is Kirriemuir. Couple of years ago a 20-year-old female lured her ex-boyfriend to a playpark, and a couple of guys she knew stabbed him 27 times, severed his spinal column in two places and burnt his body. They were put away for murder, and interestingly (from a legal perspective) she got ten years for culpable homicide (roughly manslaughter).

Anyway, nothing that much in the grand scheme of things, but when you see people like that from places you know like the back of your hand, and they're the kind of people you went to school with, met in the pub, or maybe even had relationships with, it makes you wonder. Of course, they're a good bit younger than me, but these days they're the type that might get into your taxi, or maybe get into an argument with over the fare, or for parking on the rank or similar (get the impression they were workaday boy racer types.)

Of course, stuff like that very unusual, but makes you wonder what even the people you see on the streets day in, day out are capable of

(One of the Kirriemuir murderers was found hanged in his cell not long ago.)

There is head bangers in all walks of life, example he has been the worst American President ever.
If anyone over here had said yesterday what he did, you would have been arrested in minutes for inciting a riot and public unrest.

SO the possibilities are

Disgruntled ex driver

Insurance Job

bored schoolkids

Didn't pay his protection money to the Mob

Competitor trying to put him out of business

Annoyed drunk who couldn't get a taxi home

Donald trump because well he's a first class nut job

Have I missed any ?

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

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

Interesting that those three cabs were parked up all close together in the same car park.

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IDFIMH

More shenanigans in Brechin. Not much to do with the trade (except for fact it all kicked off when the victim got out of a taxi), but these are the very streets I got in a few scrapes 30-40 years ago. Lived to tell the tale (apart from a few aches and pains), but when you read stuff like this it sounds like my past and current life together - taxis, drunks, boy racers, rammies and crime

Anyway, interesting piece maybe from a legal perspective. First, convicted unanimously of attempted murder. Surprised it wasn't a lesser charge.

Second, the one who wasn't driving was also done for attempted murder

"Common purpose" with the driver, apparently

(I'm sure we discussed 'common purpose' or a similar legal concept on here a wee while back, but can't find it now. Maybe I'm thinking of somewhere else, or I'm searching for the wrong words.)


Brothers face jail for trying to murder man by mowing him down with a car in Brechin

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/lo ... ed-murder/

A pair of brothers who mowed a man down in an attack with a car were facing lengthy jail sentences for the murder bid.

Colin Sangster, 27, and Alexander Sangster, 25 pursued Paul Ross in the vehicle before mounting a pavement and striking the pedestrian.

Mr Ross was hit on the body and thrown into the air before landing and sustaining serious injuries in the assault in Brechin.

The victim told the High Court in Edinburgh that in the wake of the attack his left leg was “dangling a bit like a bit of spaghetti” and bone was protruding from a kneecap.

He underwent extensive surgery for fractures to his legs.

The younger brother was heard saying as he and his elder sibling fled the scene: “What the f— have we done.”

Sangster, of Carberry Crescent, Dundee, and his younger brother, a prisoner in Grampian jail, had both denied attempting to murder Mr Ross, 35, on August 18 in 2019 at City Road in Brechin.

A jury unanimously convicted the pair of the murder bid. The trial judge, Lord Beckett, said the verdicts were “plainly decisive” and told jurors they were “entirely justified by the evidence”.

The brothers were both under the influence of alcohol when they chased their quarry in the car before attacking him to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and impairment and to the danger of his life and attempting to murder him following an earlier altercation.

Advocate depute Margaret Barron told jurors: “It was fortunate Paul Ross survived the impact. He was badly hurt, but he survived.”

The prosecutor said evidence in the case clearly pointed to the older brother being the driver of the Renault Clio with his younger brother a passenger.

The Crown maintained the unemployed pair had acted together with a common criminal purpose in the offence.

Mr Ross, a greenkeeper, had been at a barbecue and out in Forfar before returning to his home town by taxi with others.

He said that when he got out an altercation had already started between the two men he was with and a group in the street in Brechin.

He said a woman struck him on the face and told the court: “I didn’t know what was going on. I had just got out of the taxi.”

Further trouble ensued and at one stage Mr Ross said he was struck by the younger Sangster brother.

After he was hit by the car he said he found himself in the road with his legs snapped.

He said: “I was struggling to come to terms with what had happened, why somebody would want to do that.”

Mr Ross said he was definitely on the pavement when he was struck by the car which approached him from behind.

He sustained ankle, knee and thigh fractures in the attack and was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee and underwent surgery.

Colin Sangster’s DNA was found on the steering wheel, handbrake and a car key in the vehicle used in the attack.

The older brother was on bail but following the verdict his counsel, Jonathan Crowe, said: “In light of the seriousness of the conviction there is no motion for bail.”

Lord Beckett adjourned sentencing for the preparation of background reports on the brothers until February 15 at the High Court in Glasgow with the pair remanded in custody.

Down here we call it 'joint enterprise'.

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IDFIMH

Ah, yes, same principle, but I was looking for the wrong terminology.

This was the thread where you mentioned it. Broadly similar circumstances as well - pedestrian died after driving incident, and carful of scrotes charged. But further down the thread looks like they identified the driver and the others were released without charge.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33352&p=384522&hilit=joint+enterprise#p384178