Taxi Driver Online

Jail for man after vicious assault on taxi driver

Punching and kicking a taxi driver after a boozy night out in Cambridge has led to jail for aspiring teacher Robert Usher. The 23-year-old stole Elias Ali’s mobile phone and wallet, which contained £275, after the Punjabi taxi driver asked for extra money for an additional stop.

Usher also threatened to kill Mr Ali and burn his taxi, Cambridge Crown Court was told. Mr Ali’s screams were heard by a police operator after he rang 999 during the attack at Pendrill Court, Papworth Everard, shortly before midnight on July 10 last year.

Rejecting pleas for single dad Usher, pictured, to be spared jail for the sake of his 5-year-old daughter, Judge Gareth Hawkesworth told him it had been “an incredibly unpleasant event in which you plainly lost control of yourself”.

The judge said he believed Usher had, in his “distorted state”, been trying to impress a female passenger who he “plainly wanted to spend the night with”.

Sentencing Usher to two-and-a-half years, the judge told him: “By your actions, which one was able in part to hear while he made a desperate call for help, you reduced your victim to a state of hysterical terror.” He added: “Taxi drivers, particularly at night, have to be protected.”

Jonathan Seely, prosecuting, said Usher had been celebrating the end of a training course the night in question and was picked up with three friends by Mr Ali from Drummer Street.

A fee of £50 to St Neots was agreed and a further £15 secured a drop-off in Papworth but Usher, who admitted robbery, became angry when he was told he would have to pay extra for a trip to Brampton.

Usher “threatened to burn the taxi”, Mr Seely said, prompting a fearful Mr Ali to take out his wallet and offer him £20, but Usher got out and punched the driver in the face.

Mr Seely said a police operator was now listening in and added: “The driver recalled being kicked in the back four or five times. “The male shouted ‘take us to Brampton’ and ‘I will kill you’. “The 999 call handler heard shouting and screaming, apparently under attack.”

Mark McDonald, mitigating, said Usher had been working in his daughter’s school as a teaching assistant and had hoped to train as a teacher, but had since been sacked, and his career was “in tatters”.

The court heard Usher, of Cook Drive, Eynesbury, had three previous convictions for threatening behaviour. Judge Hawkesworth said it was a “matter of luck” those episodes had not turned nasty.

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IDFIMH

And this scum-bag was working as a teaching assistant? FFS.

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IDFIMH

Yeah, wouldn't want him beating on kids