captain cab wrote: CABBIE PUNCHED
TAXI drivers are facing attacks and abuse as a routine part of their job.
Obnoxious and aggressive passengers are becoming more common and many attacks go unrecorded because drivers don't report them, according to local firms.
Their comments come after a Poole businessman who racially abused and attacked a taxi driver while he was at the wheel, causing the cab to crash, was jailed for four months.
Lloyd Butt, 39, from Britannia Road, Parkstone, admitted racially aggravated assault by beating and racially aggravated criminal damage on August 13 last year.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard how Butt, who runs his own scaffolding business, had become abusive after the driver asked him to put out his cigarette.
When he realised the taxi driver was taking him to the police station, Butt hurled racial abuse at him and pulled off the rear mirror.
He tried to punch the driver and grabbed the steering wheel, causing a collision.
Sentencing Butt, Judge John Harrow told him taxi drivers were in a "vulnerable situation", especially when faced with drunk passengers.
"They are performing a public service and they have to be protected," he said.
Defending, James Newton-Price said Butt - whose firm has a £100,000 turnover - had sent a £10 postal order and £7 to cover the cost of the mirror "to try and make amends".
Mr Newton-Price said sending Butt could lose his business if sent to jail. He is professional, reliable, very polite and courteous. Alcohol affected his behaviour on the night of the offence," he said.
Mike Stone, owner of Ace Taxis in Bournemouth, said abuse of taxi drivers was rising in Bournemouth.
Mr Stone had to call 999 when he was attacked by a female passenger who grabbed his hair through the hole in the glass screen and continued to bang his head against the glass until the police arrived.
He said that the 15 drivers that work for Ace Taxis regularly have to put up with verbal abuse, people running off without paying and loutish behaviour.
In many cases drivers did not bother to report problems because of the paperwork.
Karl Corio, owner of Wimborne Minster Cars and Taxis, agreed there was a serious problem and said most incidents involved younger people who have been drinking and taking drugs.
The chairman of the Bournemouth Taxi and Private Hire Joint Committee, Ashley Miller, said: "Black and Asian drivers tend to get racial abuse particularly after 9/11 and 7/7."
He said that a female taxi driver was held up at knifepoint and that on two occasions he had driven abusive passengers to the police station.
He welcomed the fact that courts were taking crime against taxi drivers seriously.
Part of the reason that this is escalating is because of the fixed penalty system - in other words a down grading of crime in general.
I had an occasion to take three young women to a local nick over a fare, the police themselves were very good about it, and could see through the behaviour of the women what the problem was. One of the women was so gobby that she ended up in the cells, but the downside was that she was given a fixed penalty notice - something like £60 Ummm if she pays it.
Okay officer now I have lost somewhere in the region of an hour sorting this out plus my fare in the region £11.40 (the fare was not really the issue, and neither am I short of £11.40 but we had so much of it happening that I decided to do something about it).
Sorry sir YOU have to take them to a civil claims court to try to get your money. There may be some of you that would say well why dont you - But! I am sure that you all realise that you can still lose, so more money down the drain.
So it goes back to the article above - because of the system it will keep on happening because drivers know that justice is not going to served and so they will not bother. The courts are taking the easy way out because all they want is cash, and the stats will show that crime is down so that is a win win win situation for them. I would also say that they do not really care about social justice because they do not move in the same circles and it does not affect them, unfortunately it will go on because it is all about cash and not justice.
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