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Evening Gazette
December 19, 2007, Wednesday
Teenager locked up; Demand for taxi man's cash
A TEENAGER who tried to rob a taxi driver is spending Christmas in a young offenders' institution.
The judge sentencing Kyle Peebles said: "Taxi drivers are perhaps the most vulnerable.
They go where they are taken and they are at risk.
"They are entitled to the protection of the courts. They are entitled to know that people who attempt to take their money will be sent to custody to punish and deter others."
Peebles tried to rob taxi driver Zamareh Nasrullah of a money bag containing pounds 100 outside his mother's Guisborough home on June 23.
He denied attempted robbery and went to trial, where he was convicted by a jury.
Already serving a sentence for other offending, he appeared for sentence at Teesside Crown Court this week.
The court was told Peebles, formerly of Lime Road, Guisborough, was 17 when he shouted for the driver to give him the money, and picked up a half-brick. He had previous convictions and was on bail and serving a community order at the time.
Defence counsel Deborah Sherwin said Peebles, now 18, was an immature, uneducated teenager who committed a spontaneous offence.
She added he made progress since in Castington Young Offenders' Institution, and asked for a suspended sentence.
He hoped for release in January to make a fresh start with his mother in Skelton, away from bad influences.
Miss Sherwin said Peebles found custody unpleasant, with young men in for murder and other serious offences.
"They aren't the most ideal company for someone who is trying to turn the corner and better his lot," she said.
She suggested the taxi driver should have been more cautious picking up Peebles, who was "under the influence of something", in the first place.
The judge, Recorder John Lodge, said the driver picked up two people who were boisterous but not threatening, and the driver felt on edge after dropping off the first.
He took into account Peebles' age, efforts in custody, and locked him up for 12 months.
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