Taxi Driver Attackers Are Jailed
28th July 2009
Two dangerous robbers who attacked a Preston cabbie with an iron bar – and told another they had a gun – are today behind bars.
A judge sentenced Kevin Murphy, 24, of Lady Acre, Bamber Bridge, to eight years and eight months – with a five-year extension to his licence – after he pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery.
His co-defendant Lee Muir, 20, of Burnslack Road, Ribbleton, who also pleaded guilty to two robberies, was jailed for six years and eight months.
The pair targeted two Preston taxi drivers in separate incidents in November last year, which came in the middle of a spate of other attacks and robberies that terrified many of the city's cabbies.
In the first incident, on November 27, 2008, the duo called a cab driver from Miller Taxis to St Paul's Square in Deepdale, then told him they had a gun before robbing his mobile phone and cash at knifepoint.
The next day the criminals used an iron bar to threaten and assault another cabbie from Allied Taxis, after hiring his taxi from the firm's rank in Avenham and getting out at Miller Road, Ribbleton, where they assaulted him and stole his takings and his taxi.
The robbery of the Miller Taxis driver had coincided with two more of the firm's cabbies being robbed the same week. He still works as a cabbie but switched firms.The other driver no longer works at Allied.
Afterwards bosses at Miller's introduced a "text back" system to alleviate the need for taxi drivers to get out of their cabs.
Today Miller Taxi's operations controller Gordon Riding said: "We welcome the sentence – it is reassuring to taxi drivers in the city and will help restore confidence in the justice system.
"I think it's good the courts are coming down hard on them because that is what's needed. Our drivers need protecting.
"We had to introduce a text back system to protect our drivers. I'm pleased to say it's working well and touch wood we have had nothing on the scale of the robbery since – although we still have customers that run off without paying."
Det Insp Ian Dawson of Preston police said: "In November 2008 a reassurance operation was launched in the city amongst licensed hire establishments due to robberies occurring on taxi drivers.
"Muir and Murphy were arrested immediately following the second offence. The sentences received at court are an excellent result and indicates an appropriate message to individuals willing to threaten and assault members of the public."
A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said the sentences sent out a "strong message which anyone contemplating similar offences would do well to heed".
Source; lep.co.uk
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