Taxi Driver Online

Stalking taxi driver bugged ex-wife's house

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/192040 ... fes-house/

A TAXI driver who bugged his ex-wife’s home and snooped in her personal papers has been ordered by a court to move out of the area and change his job.

Neil Andrew Smith, 59, was so “obsessed” with her, he ruined her mother’s funeral and lurked around her house at midnight dressed in black with his hood up, said Michael Bosomworth, prosecuting.

He listened in to her private conversations, including about her mother’s death, and got her phone and rummaged through its contents.

His actions were part of a 20-month stalking campaign against her during which he also haunted her street, repeatedly driving down it and looking up at the house.

Police warned him off, but Smith continued to stalk her.

“What Neil has done has made me feel violated, scared and insecure in my home,” said Smith’s former wife. She described his actions as “unforgivable”.

“What you did to your former partner was a form of mental cruelty,” the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris told him.

Smith had known that his former wife had been deeply upset by her mother’s death, yet he had turned up at her funeral despite being told he would not be welcome.

“I cannot think of anything so low,” the judge told York Crown Court.

He warned Smith that he would forbid him from ever contacting his ex-wife again, or going to her street.

And he gave him six months to prove that he shouldn’t go to jail by moving house to a home at least two miles away from her, changing jobs and not going to her street or contacting her.

The judge warned: “I cannot see how on earth you can keep a taxi licence with a conviction for stalking a woman.”

Smith, currently of Fifth Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to stalking. He will be sentenced in October.

For him, Sean Smith said the taxi driver was remorseful and had stopped after his second arrest. He claimed the break-up had been amicable until “lawyers were involved”.

The court heard the 11-year marriage ended after Neil Smith had an extra-marital affair.

Presumably the judge could have just banned him from driving taxis in the meantime rather than waiting till sentencing in October?

Presumably the council will take his badge anyway, but, you know...

I cannot see how on earth he still had a taxi license.

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IDFIMH

He could have added that to his bail conditions, surprised he didn't.

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IDFIMH

I wonder if this isn't a classic transference of guilt

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

No.

It's a classic case of him being a scumbag.

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IDFIMH

Says here he's no longer a taxi driver (surprise, surprise), but still nothing about the licensing aspect, but presumably he was revoked well before this prison sentence


Former York taxi driver is jailed for stalking his ex-wife

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/198259 ... g-ex-wife/


Image: York Press

A “MALIGN spirit” who bugged his former wife’s home and snooped in her personal papers has been jailed.

When a judge gave taxi driver Neil Andrew Smith a chance to prove he could leave his ex-wife alone, the defendant told her male friend some of his family wanted to “rip her head off”, York Crown Court heard.

He also texted the friend saying “Say hi for me" to his former wife.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told Smith: “You are one of those men who has to learn when relationships are over you no longer have any control over, nor have the right to dictate to a woman whom she sees or whom she has as a friend.

“She is entitled to have a life without you hovering over it like some malign spirit.

“You need a lesson.”

Smith, 59, formerly of Fifth Avenue, Tang Hall, was jailed for nine months and made subject to a 10-year restraining order banning him from contacting his former wife directly or indirectly or going within 175 metres of her home.

He pleaded guilty to stalking the woman in April and the judge deferred sentence with conditions that included Smith not contacting his ex-wife directly or indirectly.

He is no longer a taxi driver and now works as a handyman.

In April, the court heard how Smith had staged a 20-month stalking campaign against his ex-wife including being an unwelcome guest at her mother’s funeral.

He installed a bugging device at her house and looked through her phone and private papers.

He lurked around her house at midnight dressed in black with his hood up and drove his taxi up and down her street looking up at her house.

He continued the campaign despite being warned off by police.

Michael Bosomworth, prosecuting, said Smith had made 500 attempts to listen in to the bugging device.

At the sentencing hearing, Smith agreed when giving evidence that during the deferment period, he had sent the friend the text “Say hi for me”.

He claimed it had been meant sarcastically and not as an attempt to contact the ex-wife.

“You were letting her know you were watching,” the judge told Smith. “I put you on trust and you threw it in my face.”

The former wife gave evidence Smith had told her friend in May his family “wanted to rip her head off” in a telephone conversation.

Smith claimed the comment had been in connection with a dog.

Mr Bosomworth said Smith was “obsessed” with his former wife.

Eddison Flint, for Smith, said he had tried to move on. He had a new partner and spent every weekend with her in Scarborough.

So the judge gave him an option to adhere to the law and leave the lady alone, or go to jail.

The f***wit, by his actions, chose jail.

And for the next ten years he will be in and out of jail until he finally gets the message.

If indeed he ever does.

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IDFIMH