Taxi Driver Online

Drunkard who stole taxi driver's mobile phone jailed for carrying knife

A MAN who failed to turn up at court after stealing a taxi driver's phone has been jailed after he was later arrested while carrying a knife.

Tyrone Ackerman legged it from a taxi after refusing to pay the fare and stealing the mobile phone in January this year.

The defendant was later identified when Boro Taxis called the number of the phone used to book the cab from a property on The Oaks, Hemlington.

The 23-year-old was arrested and charged for theft and making off without payment but failed to appear before Teesside Magistrates on February 18.

Teesside Crown Court heard how he was arrested the following day after he was spotted walking along Parliament Road, Middlesbrough.

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, said Ackerman was spotted throwing away a bottle containing Diazepam tablets

She added: "He was seen by two PCs and when he saw them he tried to hide and pulled his hoodie over his head and turned his face away.

"The Pc got out of the car and went to approach the defendant and he saw the defendant throw something from his jacket pocket. He said the the female he was with 'here take these baby' the officer recovered the container of Diazepam tablets and arrested under drug offences and it was then he was searched and the craft knife was discovered."

Ackerman, of Harford Street, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to theft, leaving without making a payment, failing to surrender to custody and possession of a bladed article.

The court heard that he had 32 previous convictions for 58 offences, including six convictions for failing to attend court as well as previous convictions for possession of a blade and offences of dishonesty.

His solicitor, Nigel Soppitt said his client's most significant mitigating factor was his immediate guilty pleas when he appeared before magistrates.

He added: "In relation to the taxi incident, it is no comfort to the driver that the defendant was very drunk on that particular night and he thought the driver was ridiculing him to a certain extent because he didn't really know where he was going and he reacted foolishly by snatching phone and running off.

"The knife offence, which is the more serious offence, his account is that he simply forgot about that knife that was in his pocket."

Judge Howard Crowson jailed Ackerman to six months in prison for possession of the bladed article and 14 days concurrent for failing to surrender to custody.

"If you didn't have a record, it could have been argued for something other than prison but you do have a record and it does mean the minimum sentence will be six months," he said.

"I know, we all know, that every prison at the moment is a harder place to be than usual."

Ackerman was also ordered to pay the taxi driver £122 in compensation.

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IDFIMH

and yet he was still free to walk the streets and commit more crime

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

I know journalists and the press are under a lot of pressure at the moment, and it's quite normal to find errors and typos in online articles, but that's just a tad too sloppy

As well as the word 'the' repeated and the generally poor sentence construction, there should be at least one full stop in there.

No full stops making things difficult to read? Doesn't remind me of someone on here at all

People do serve their sentence and get released.

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IDFIMH