Taxi Driver Online

Another blast from the past. This one's from 1998

Obviously from before the time this site started, so no sign of it on here. But it's from about the time I started working in St Andrews, and incident happened in the same zone, although in another town. Took a few fares from the nightclub in question over the years, but it was maybe a decade after this article until I ever went near the club.

Good fare, though - Cupar to the Gauldry on T2


Taxi man played fair. Sheriff clears cab driver of abduction in fare-dodging fear incident

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/123 ... -incident/

TAXI drivers across Scotland were celebrating last night after a sheriff backed a driver who held a suspected fare-dodger in his car until she agreed to pay.

Mr Lewis McKay had been accused of abducting off-duty policewoman Gillian McEwan.

But yesterday Sheriff George Evans cleared Mr McKay of the charge after hearing how Miss McEwan had seemed to try to avoid paying a #15 fare.

The driver was found guilty of an alternative charge of breach of the peace but was given an absolute discharge.

Sheriff Evans said: ''Given that your motive in acting was to get your fare, I cannot find you guilty of abduction.

''It is very unfortunate that things have gone this far.''

Cupar Sheriff Court was told that Mr McKay, 60, picked up Miss McEwan, 28, and her brother Andrew, 23, outside a nightclub in Cupar, Fife, at around 2am on Christmas morning last year.

She agreed to pay Mr McKay #15 to take her and her brother to their parents' home in Gauldry.

But when they arrived, Miss McEwan said that she only had #13.

Mr McKay told the court: ''I asked her if she was sure she had enough before we left Cupar. But she said: ''Look, I'm a f...... police officer. If I say I have the money, I have the money.

''When I stopped in Gauldry the boy got out of the car and disappeared. So I drove off again with the girl in the car. If I let her out of the car I would never have seen either of them again.

''I told her I was taking her to the police station.''

He added: ''She said again that she was a 'f....... police officer.'

''I think it was supposed to frighten me into accepting whatever money she gave me.

''But on the way to the police station she told me to stop at a phone box. She phoned her dad to bring my fare.''

Earlier, Miss McEwan denied that she had deliberately tried to dodge the fare.

She said: ''I thought I had a #20 note in my pocket but it turned out that it was only #10. If he had let me out of the car I would have got some change out of my car in my parents' driveway.

''But he never gave me a chance. He drove off saying that he was going to take me to the police station.

''When we got to Rathillet I said I was a police officer and he stopped. I think he realised what he was doing was wrong.''

Mr McKay, of Cupar Road, Kennoway, Fife, had a not guilty plea to a further breach of the peace charge accepted by the procurator-fiscal.

He will now have to appear before Fife Council licensing board to see whether he can keep his operating licence.

Outside the court, Mr McKay said: ''I am relieved and delighted at the sheriff's decision. I am glad he recognised that all I was trying to do was get my fare. There was no intention to do anything illegal or cause any harm.

''I just wanted to show her, policewoman or not, that I am not standing for people who try to dodge the fare.''

The sheriff's decision was also welcomed by the taxi drivers' leaders.

Mr Eric Barrie, official of the Transport and General Workers Union Edinburgh taxi drivers branch, said: ''This is good news.

''Drivers are having to deal with this kind of problem more and more.''

He added: ''We will be studying this case to see what it means for other drivers caught in the same position.

''If this is backing for drivers to take this kind of action it would be wonderful news.''

That one went in the trade's favour, but I recall a big hoohah about an Edinburgh case that went the other way, a few years later.

I'm sure some big official legal figure like the Lord Advocate issued some sort of legal opinion in the trade's favour.

Can't find it now, but I'm sure this thread here was the precursor to it all

http://taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtop ... =2&t=11826

Of course, another way to tell this article is 22-years-old is that I doubt the term 'policewoman' would be used these days

And certainly not the 'WPC' I used in the thread title

I'm sure they are still called WPC's certainly around here they are.

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

Obviously SKDC area rampantly sexist and misogynistic


Sexism row after female cop chases down machete attack suspect

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/p ... op-2368390

Members of the public also gave chase - but brave Devon and Cornwall police officer stopped them in case suspect was armed

A row over sexism has broken out after a brave female police officer chased down a machete attack suspect.

A tweet from Devon and Cornwall Police's Armed Response Team praised the unnamed officer, who stopped members of the public chasing down the suspect in case he was armed - and then hunted him down herself. However, the use of the term WPC (Woman Police Constable) drew criticism, which in turn was criticised by the force's Critical Incident Manager.

Blah, blah...

It's only seven miles, though, so not such a good job as I was thinking

But when I worked that club occasionally a few years ago, was living in Dundee, so Gauldry was roughly in the going home direction - most longer fares from the club would go in the opposite direction

Note also that 'the Gauldry' isn't a typo. That's the local way of saying it, and to that extent it's the newspaper article that's got it wrong

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauldry