Not often there's a charge of aggravated vehicle taking featured on here
Apart from that, sounds like your typical taxi tube
Man armed with knives stole taxi after refusing to pay fare
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/man-armed-kni ... 29940.html
Image: Yahoo News UK
A taxi passenger refused to pay his fare then pushed the cabbie and took his vehicle, a court has heard. The cab was found a short time later on Aberavon seafront - Jeremy Higgins was still sat inside the now damaged vehicle and when searched he was found to be carrying two knives.
Swansea Crown Court heard the cabbie has been left feeling "anxious and stressed" at work as a result of the incident, and feeling nervous when picking up passengers. A judge told the defendant he was "very fortunate" that the Crown Prospection Service had decided not to purse a charge of robbery but had opted for the lesser offence of aggravated vehicle taking instead.
Georgia Donohue, prosecuting, told the court that in the early hours of November 23 last year the defendant rang for a taxi to pick up him and another man from Trinity Court in Sandfields, Port Talbot and take them to nearby Dalton Road. However on arrival both passengers left the vehicle without paying the fare.
The court heard that some 40 minutes later Higgins rang the taxi driver and asked to be picked up from Ocean Way in Sandfields, and he said he would pay for both the new journey and the previous one. After keeping the cabbie waiting at the location for around 20 minutes Higgins approached the taxi but when asked about the fares refused to pay. The court heard the taxi driver alighted from the cab to speak to Higgins and at that point the defendant pushed the cabbie in the chest causing him to stumble backwards before jumping into the driver's seat of the vehicle and driving away towards the seafront.
The prosecutor said the taxi driver rang police to report the incident before setting off for the seafront himself. She said the cabbie spotted his vehicle near the RNLI lifeboat station on the prom and saw tyres tracks in the grass of the roundabout outside the lifeboat station and damage to the front of his cab. Higgins was still sat in the driver's seat and appeared to be searching the interior. Police arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and arrested the defendant. When searched the 31-year-old was found to be carrying two knives. For the latest court reports, sign up to our crime newsletter here
In a victim impact statement read to the court by the prosecution barrister the cabbie said being a taxi driver was his sole source of income and he said the events of last November had left him feeling "anxious and stressed" and feeling "very nervous" at picking up passengers. The taxi driver said he only had third-party insurance for the vehicle and the cost of putting right the damage had been £683.
Jeremy Higgins, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and to two counts of possession of a bladed article when he appeared in the dock via videolink from prison. The court heard he had originally been charged with robbery in relation to the incident but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had not pursued that charge and had accepted a plea to the vehicle-taking charge. Higgins has previous convictions for theft, the simple possession of drugs, and Class A drug trafficking as well as three for possession of bladed articles from 2018, 2020, and 2023.
Helen Randall, for Higgins, said controlled drugs had long been an issue in the defendant's life. She said her client had started using cannabis as a 15-year-old and his drug misuse had then developed in using heroin and crack cocaine. The barrister said Higgins "fell in with the wrong crowd and took bad decisions" in his younger life but now wants to tackle his drug misuse once and for all, find employment and "turn his life around".
Judge Paul Thomas KC said after refusing to pay his fares Higgins had pushed a taxi driver and taken his car, and that when subsequently arrested was in possession of two "ugly knives". He said in his view the push to the taxi driver "comes very close if not beyond" the level of force necessary to make out the offence of robbery but said that "for reasons best known by the CPS" they had decided not to pursue that charge. He told Higgins he was "very fortunate" that the prosecution had accepted his plea to aggravated vehicle taking instead. Judge Thomas also questioned a taxi driver only having third-party insurance on his vehicle.
With one-third discounts for his guilty pleas Higgins was sentenced to 12 months in prison comprising four months for aggravated vehicle taking and eight months for possession of the knives to run consecutively. He will serve up to half the 12 months in prison before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The defendant was disqualified from driving for 12 months with the ban extended by an extra six months to allow for the time he will be behind bars.
