Birthday boy robber told taxi driver he would 'do him' before stealing takings in row over £10 farehttps://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/wes ... i-28946284
A thug who was out with his girlfriend celebrating his birthday robbed a taxi driver and told him he was going to "do him" in a disagreement over a fare.
Gareth Richards, 44, had a "tussle" with the taxi driver who had charged him £10 for a journey from Wakefield to Knottingley on January 24 this year.
Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie told Leeds Crown Court on Friday the victim - a driver for a company based in Pontefract - picked up a fare at around 2.30am. Richards and his partner got into the taxi and upon reaching their destination paid £10 for the journey.
Mr Ritchie said: "The arrangement, it seems, would be that the driver would wait for them to return to Wakefield. Around five minutes later, while still waiting, he was approached by the defendant. The defendant demanded change from the £10 he had previously given and he [the driver] replied that there wasn't any change due to the defendant.
"He put it that the defendant then became argumentative and said he was owed £6. The defendant then approached into the car and grabbed the bag which had his takings as a taxi driver. There was a tussle between the defendant and the driver during which the defendant pushed him and said he was going to 'do him.'
"He [the driver] took that as being a threat of violence. The defendant managed to wrestle the bag from him and run off."
It was said the bag contained around £70 in cash. The driver was said to have suffered a "slight graze" and it was said in court the incident lasted between five and ten minutes and described as being "very scary."
The court heard Richards, who appeared over a video link from HMP Lincoln, had previous convictions for offences of threatening behaviour, breach of a suspended sentence and a robbery in 1997. He was on licence at the time of the robbery, which he indicated a guilty plea to at the magistrates' court.
Mitigating, Christopher Morton, said Richards' two-year-old son had died in October last year and he had been to his son's grave the day before. Mr Morton said the fare was picked up in Ferrybridge and the couple were going to another area of Knottingley to buy cigarettes on the black market.
"The background was a disagreement that he accepts and he accepts he was intoxicated," Mr Morton continued.
"The distance [between locations] is a couple of miles. The understanding he had was when the taxi was booked, it would be a £10 return journey. When they arrived, the decision was made not to go home which is why he returned to the taxi to go and tell the driver they wouldn't need the second half of the journey he booked and thought he would pay for so understood he would be entitled to some change...
"It was a spur of the moment offence - there was no pre-planning for that matter. The fact of the matter is the defendant, when under the influence of drink, reacted badly to being told he wouldn't be given change he thought he was entitled to. He was angry and did make a threat and grabbed and stole the driver's takings.
"It happened on his 44th birthday. He was released from prison in September and provided with accommodation for a short period of time. His two-year-old son died in October 2023 and he had spent the day before the offence attending his son's grave and also drinking."
The court heard that Richards has "expressed genuine remorse" to the author of a pre-sentence report, and upon his release intends to move in with his partner. Mr Morton said a company he was laid off from during the Covid-19 pandemic has said when he is released, he can contact them and there is a job waiting.
His Honour Judge Khan KC jailed Richards for two years and said: "This wasn't planned. It was clearly something that happened without any real thought and while you were in drink."
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