Some may say that this sentence is all down to the current government we have, I couldn't possibly comment.
Taxi driver in Halifax was victim of drunken attack
https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... en-attack/
A TRAINEE bricklayer who choked and repeatedly punched a taxi driver before stealing his takings in a drunken late-night attack has been ordered to pay him £2,000 in compensation for injuries and lost income.
Bradford Crown Court heard how the assault on the victim, who had never previously been attacked in his 25 years as a taxi driver, had left him shaken, nervous, and fearful of being beaten again.
Prosecutor Alisha Kaye told the court how Ben Bland, now 21, was picked up from the Tesco store at King Cross in Halifax just before 11pm on November 9, 2022, and asked to be dropped at Woodville Street.
However, Bland, of Moorfield Street, Halifax, told the driver he had no money and requested to pay the following day, to which the driver asked if there was anything he could leave as a deposit.
Bland then asked to be taken to a cash point. As the driver set off Bland reached over from the back seat and put his hands around the other man’s neck to choke him.
Bland also punched him in the face and to his arms and chest.
The driver tried to open his door to get out of the car but was prevented from doing so by his seat belt. The car then rolled forward and the driver was pulled out and dragged alongside the vehicle.
Believing he could not exit the car from the back doors Bland climbed into the front and over the driver to escape via the driver’s door.
As he did so he took a leather bag from inside the driver’s door containing £50 in takings and ran off.
Another taxi driver, who had seen the attack, chased Bland but could not catch him. He returned to the scene to help his colleague who was said to be in “a dazed state”, and the police were called.
The driver was taken to Calderdale Royal Hospital with cuts and bruises to his face and a graze to his ankle where he had been dragged along the road.
Bland had left behind a jacket and a vape. He was identified from DNA found on the vape and arrested on February 6, 2023, when he went to a police station.
He later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and theft from a person.
In a statement, the victim said Bland’s attack upon him was the first time he had been assaulted in his 25 years of being a taxi driver.
He said it had left him “shaken” and “nervous” to go on further shifts, unable to work for long periods due to pain caused by his injuries, and that he was fearful of meeting Bland again and being assaulted further.
Mitigating, Gerald Hendron said Bland, a trainee bricklayer who was approaching his 19th birthday when the assault happened, was “not thinking rationally or logically” at the time as he was drunk.
He said he was “thoroughly ashamed of his behaviour” and had since “changed for the better”.
Mr Recorder Patrick Palmer sentenced Bland to 18 months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered him to pay £2,000 in compensation to his victim.
He was also ordered to pay court costs of £800, to undertake 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days, and to take part in a 60-day alcohol abstinence programme.