A TAXI driver was forced to hand over £18 by a knife-wielding thug.
The driver was called to Balfe Court, in Greenstead, Colchester, where he was confronted by a man wearing a black balaclava and holding a large kitchen knife.
He threatened the driver, who is in his sixties, and robbed him of the cash.
The cab driver was left shaken, but unhurt, after the incident which took place yesterday, at 1.40am.
It is the latest in a spate of attacks on taxi drivers in Colchester. A 39-year-old driver working for private hire firm PDQ Cars, based at Circular Road East, Colchester, was robbed by two men who put a rope around his neck and threatened him with knives in December. They snatched between £150 and £200.
At the end of October, taxi driver John Carter, 35, was stabbed in the arm after two robbers grabbed him from behind, in the Hythe, and demanded his takings.
Mark Tokley, from PDQ Cars, based in Colchester, said the man was one of its drivers.
He said: “It’s a very real and increasing concern for all the taxi drivers.
“There seems to be a minority that seem to think this is an easy way of picking up what at the end of the day is often a very small amount of cash.”
PDQ Cars plans to install CCTV cameras in its vehicles as a result of the attacks.
Police have appealed for information about the identity of the robber in yesterday’s incident.
He was wearing a black, plastic or leather bomber jacket, black bottoms and trainers.
source:
http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/
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