Taxi Driver Online

Taxi passenger shouted 'Poppadoms' as he used racist language towards taxi driver

A red-faced and drunken taxi passenger had his fists clenched and nostrils flared before he used racial words towards a taxi driver.

Nottingham Magistrates' Court heard there seemed to be a dispute with the driver over money.

Passenger Thomas MacInnes, 27, a full-time bricklayer, of Borrowdale Close, Gamston, was in an angry state and was "quite clearly drunk", said Daniel Pietryka, prosecuting.

He had his fists clenched, was red in the face and nostrils flared. He had to be escorted out by police.

He shouted words such as "Poppadoms" in an Asian accent at around midnight on December 21 in Goosegate, Nottingham.

MacInnes went on to plead guilty to using racially-aggravated threatening behaviour which was met with a £200 fine, £35 victim surcharge and an order to pay £85 prosecution costs. The charge is limited to a financial penalty, the court heard.

Rebecca Meadows, mitigating, said MacInnes had gone out with friends and went to get a taxi home and the driver asked for £25 upfront.

MacInnes, who was heading back to East Leake, where he was living at the time, handed over the cash.

But the taxi driver changed his mind and said it was a £35 fare which MacInnes thought was too much.

He decided he did not want to take the journey and wanted his money back and the driver returned £20 to him, explained Miss Meadows.

"They argued about it in the taxi for some time," added Miss Meadows. "He got out of the taxi".

When police arrived, MacInnes explained to them straight away that the taxi driver had taken money from him and would not return it to him.

"Unfortunately, he made stupid comments and he is really ashamed of himself," said Miss Meadows. "He does not hold those kinds of views"

He is "quite ashamed of himself," she said, and "offers his apologies for his conduct".

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IDFIMH

No he shouldn't have done it BUT is this driver not liable to being charged with theft through keeping?

Assuming the bloke wasn't lying about the amount of money handed over!

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

Yes, that's an interesting point, and I was assuming that maybe the trip had started, and thus the driver kept a fiver to cover the fare before it was aborted, but it's not clear from the story if that was the case.

But if the trip had started, whether it was legitimate for the driver to keep a fiver depends on why it didn't go ahead:

- if the driver just changed his mind once they'd got going, for no apparent reason, the punter well within their rights to stop the trip without recompense to the driver.

- or maybe new information came to light once they'd got going, such as a detour, or the passenger had misstated his destination. Then driver within his rights to ask for more, and if passenger wouldn't play ball, driver entitled to retain cash for the fare elapsed to that point

Been there, done that blah, blah.

Well recall one a couple of years ago, good run going to Freuchie, a village in the middle of Fife.

Farmer type, pished and fell asleep, and was giving me directions while half awake. This added several unnecessary miles to the fare, and his farm was actually several miles past the village anyway. So a double detour, in effect

I asked him for more than I'd quoted because of that (and still well below what was on the meter) and he suddenly became very sober, blew a fuse, and when he jumped out I thought for a moment he was going to reappear with a shotgun, or something like that

Luckily he just kept on shouting the odds, and I drove away, but won't forget that one in a hurry

I suggest the tale told to the court didn't necessarily follow what actually happened.

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IDFIMH