Taxi Driver Online

There's a video on the website

An electrician has admitted screaming racist abuse at a Tunbridge Wells taxi driver after he was caught on video

https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-new ... se-2186794

The offence took place at Tunbridge Wells railway station in December last year


Image: Kent Live

An electrician who launched a racist tirade against a Tunbridge Wells taxi driver has been handed a four figure fine.

Ashley Fordham, 30, appeared before Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (November 5), where he pleaded guilty to a racially aggravated offence of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour, within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby.

The incident occurred before midnight at Tunbridge Wells railway station taxi rank on December 30 2017, when Fordham was quoted £42 to return home to Horsmonden by Abdullah Shaheed, the complainant.

Explaining how the events unfolded, John Bishop, prosecuting, said: “The defendant appeared to think that was excessive but became abusive and then said ‘I’m born in England. I’m English, you’re not.’”

The court heard that Mr Shaheed, who has lived in the town for 15 years and is originally from Afghanistan, was shocked and scared at that response.

'You Muslim c***, you Muslim f***'

Mr Bishop continued: “He did up his window but, before he could lock the door, the defendant opened the driver’s door.

“[Fordham] said: ‘Don’t you dare close the window in my face.’ He started swearing, using words such as ‘muslim c***’, ‘Bengali c***’ and so forth.”

The court heard how Mr Shaheed then got out of the taxi in fear of being assaulted, to get help from the fellow drivers on the rank.

Other taxi drivers and members of the public intervened and Mr Shaheed took out his phone and started recording what was going on.

A video of part of the incident went viral online at the time, where Fordham can be heard saying, “You Muslim c***, you Muslim f***. We’re in England, not in [edited by admin] Bangladesh you f***.”

In mitigation, defence counsel, Jag Takk, explained that Fordham had expected to be quoted a figure of around £25, as it was not yet past midnight.

The court also heard that Fordham was pushed in the chest, after stepping out of the taxi.

Mr Takk said: “When [Fordham’s] been pushed in the chest is when he gets really angry and we see how he’s behaved in the video.

He continued: “If you watch it carefully, someone is saying, ‘oh yes’ and laughing as they are recording.”

“The video suggests he is enjoying and relishing the prospect of what he’s going to do with the video footage,” he added.

Mr Takk also sought to question the motive for a video of this nature being shared online.

He said: “If he’s a victim, he wouldn't want to keep watching the video, they would want to put the incident behind them so he can move on.”

The sentence

Sentencing, Magistrate Bensted-Smith, said: ”We will deal with it by way of a financial penalty. Having taken into account the early guilty plea, there will be a fine of £700. That gets uplifted by £300 for the racial element.”

Mr Fordham was also ordered to pay costs of £420, including £200 compensation for Mr Shaheed.

Looks like about nine miles maximum according to Google maps, so £42 quite a hefty price, but not clear if it's out-of-area, or whatever.

As far as I can make out Horsmonden is in the Tunbridge Wells Council area.

According to the fare card Rate 2 starts at 2330, so not sure what the significance of midnight was for the fare - obviously the accused had got that wrong.

Anyway, the Rate 2 Tunbridge Wells flag is £6.00

But that's for the first mile, and after that each mile is approx £3.90, according to the fare card.

So £6 plus another 8 miles @£3.90 totals £37 or so.

So the £42 quote certainly seems on the high side, but of course the accused might not have been in the village itself, so £42 reasonably plausible for 10 miles, say.

Incidentally, the tariff card says these fares have been in operation since 2011

http://www.tunbridgewells.gov.uk/__data ... -Fares.pdf

Something wrong with our justice system when shouting a few words at a taxi driver (sticks and stones) receives a higher penalty than robbing or assaulting a taxi driver.

Had there just been a shouting match without any racist element - something that many of us have almost daily, nothing would be done.

There's something else to this than a irate passenger.

So if you go in a shop expecting to pay £25 for a pair of shoes, but the price is in fact £42, you can therefore call the shop worker racist names and generally be abusive to them.

Or should you do what this racist f***wit should have done, and gone to the next cab, or the next, or better still not spent fortunes on stuff that effected his head.

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IDFIMH

Taking into account his actions were recorded on a phone, he had no other choice than to plead guilty.

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IDFIMH

Or maybe the driver deliberately over quoted because he didn't want the f***wit in his cab.

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IDFIMH

Suspect the quote reasonable enough as regards the official tariff - forgot to say that because it was Saturday night there would have been another 80p on the figures I quoted

But it looks like it was just before midnight, and he obviously thought the daytime fares applied until then, whereas it looks like they end at 2330. And because Rate 2 is a 50% uplift he was quoted a fair whack more than what he was expecting.

None of which *excuses* his behaviour, of course, but perhaps helps *explain* it.

But it's a bit odd to have Tariff 2 start on the half hour - but there aren't many of those around.