Taxi Driver Online

Three charged after Sikh taxi driver allegedly racially abused

THREE men have been charged after a taxi driver was allegedly racially abused.

Vaneet Singh was driving the men from Reading to Basingstoke in September last year when they allegedly racially abused and assaulted him.

The incident is said to have happened as they were driving along the A33 on September 20, between 10.20 and 11.45pm.

Now, five months after the incident, detectives have charged three men.

They include one teenager from Aldermaston and another from Bramley.

Dean Brandon Smith, 19, of Paices Hill in Aldermaston, has been charged with four counts of racially and religiously aggravated common assault, racially and religiously aggravated public order, theft, and threats to commit criminal damage.

Frankie Gregory, 19, of Moat Close in Bramley, has been charged with racially or religiously aggravated common assault.

Additionally, Billy-Sam Simon Shervell, 20, of Honeysuckle Close in Swindon, has been charged with racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage.

The trio will appear before Basingstoke Magistrates' Court on April 8.

41-year-old Mr Singh, a Sikh living in Tilehurst, previously told the BBC: "It was horrible, really frightening, I will never work the nightshift again.

"I'm still very scared. It's a very bad experience."

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IDFIMH

Pleaded not guilty. Trial set for November 2021.

https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/ne ... and-trial/

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IDFIMH

I assume there is some solid evidence to back this ? Not much detail in the story

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

Enough to charge.

The courts will decide.

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IDFIMH

Usual contempt of court rules in the report, I'm guessing.

So once arrested and charged, think you can just report stuff like names, addresses, ages, and the charges?

So press reports of that kind of stuff always follow a similar kind of pattern. 'Formulaic', I think the word is.

'Formulaic' is usually used as a criticism of lazy journalism, but as regards crime reports like this it's a legal necessity.

And the evidence itself will be for the trial

Three deny charges after taxi driver racially abused

https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/ne ... ly-abused/

Three men will stand trial later this year after denying a host of charges connected to the alleged racial abuse of a taxi driver on his way to Basingstoke.

Vaneet Singh was driving the men from Reading to Basingstoke in September last year when they allegedly racially abused and assaulted him.

The incident is said to have happened as they were driving along the A33 on September 20, between 10.20 and 11.45pm.

Dean Brandon Smith, 19, of Paices Hill in Aldermaston, has been charged with four counts of racially and religiously aggravated common assault, racially and religiously aggravated public order, theft, and threats to commit criminal damage.

Frankie Gregory, 19, of Moat Close in Bramley, has been charged with racially or religiously aggravated common assault.

Additionally, Billy-Sam Simon Shervell, 20, of Station Road, Minety, Wiltshire, has been charged with racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage.

All three men denied the charges when appearing before Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court on July 22, and elected a summary trial.

They will next appear before the same court on November 8.

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IDFIMH

Chapter and verse on this one.

Not much new here that I can see, except that original trial was adjourned because no interpreter was available


Men accused of racially abusing taxi driver to stand trial

https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/ne ... and-trial/

Three men who allegedly racially abused a taxi driver on his way to Basingstoke will stand trial later this week.

Vaneet Singh was driving Dean Brandon Smith, Frankie Gregory and Billy-Sam Simon Shervell from Reading to Basingstoke on September 20, 2020, when they allegedly racially abused and assaulted him.

It allegedly happened on the A33 between 10.20 and 11.45pm.

The three men were due to stand trial on November 8, but the case was adjourned because no interpreter was available for a witness.

Instead, the trial will be held at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court on Thursday (December 9).

Gregory, of Moat Close, Bramley, pleaded not guilty to one count of racially and religiously aggravated assault.

Smith, of Paices Hill, Aldermaston, has denied four counts of racially and religiously aggravated assault, as well as a racially and religiously aggravated public order offence, theft of a phone charger and threatening to commit criminal damage to his vehicle.

Shervell, of Station Road, Minety, near Swindon, has pleaded not guilty to one county of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage.

All three elected to be tried by magistrates at hearings earlier this year.

They have been released on unconditional bail.

Not much information here on why these three were cleared, and the narrative here is all a bit dry, so it's conistent with the rest of the thread. Thus reads like stuff maybe issued by the CPS, and/or stuff produced under the contempt of court rules etc which restrict the information that can be published after arrests and charges, and during live cases, blah, blah.

But maybe more will be published later.


Three cleared over Sikh taxi driver attack

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-h ... e-59909995

Three men have been cleared of wrongdoing after a Sikh taxi driver alleged he was racially abused and assaulted.

Vaneet Singh said he was attacked during a journey from Reading to the Basingstoke area on 19 September 2020.

At Basingstoke Magistrates' Court, a district judge dismissed the case against Frankie Gregory and Billy-Sam Simon Shervell, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

While Dean Brandon Smith was acquitted.

The charges against the three men announced in April 2021 were:

- Billy-Sam Simon Shervell, of Honeysuckle Close in Swindon - racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage

- Dean Brandon Smith, of Paices Hill in Aldermaston - racially and religiously aggravated common assault, racially and religiously aggravated public order, theft, threats to commit criminal damage, and threats with intent to cause someone to believe violence would be used against them

- Frankie Gregory, of Moat Close in Bramley - racially or religiously aggravated common assault

A CPS spokeswoman said: "The CPS takes hate crime very seriously and we will always seek to prosecute where our legal tests are met.

"In this case, having carefully reviewed all of the available evidence in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors, we were satisfied that there was a realistic prospect of conviction and that it was appropriate to present charges for the court to consider."

She added that the CPS respected the court's decision.

Well the stuff on the thread here obviously published under the restrictions governing the reporting of criminal cases, but this is how it was originally reported before the arrests and charges.

In fact there's a similar (if less detailed) version of the article below elsewhere on this site, but obviously someone forgot to add the articles above to that original thread rather than starting this new one


'Are you Taliban?' Taxi driver in Reading racially attacked by passengers

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... assengers/


Image: Reading Chronicle

A SIKH taxi driver from Reading has been left 'shaken' after being attacked by four passengers who vandalised his car and abused him with racial slurs.

Vaneet Singh, 41, has lived in Tilehurst since 2008, and said he has never before been attacked in this way.

The father-of-three said he had been working a night shift and picked up four passengers from the Grosvenor Casino in Reading early on Sunday morning (September 20).

Shortly after leaving, one of the men began behaving in a disruptive manner, playing music loudly from his phone and later throwing a head rest out of the window.

The same man attempted to remove Mr Singh's turban, asking "are you Taliban?"

Thames Valley Police are now investigating the incident.

Describing the experience, Mr Singh told The Chronicle that he had felt very intimidated and "feared for his life".

"I asked him to please stop touching my head and my turban but he carried on," he said.

"I explained it is a religious symbol and that I didn't want him to touch it but he did it even more.

"He became very aggressive, changing his mind about where to drop him off and asking 'are you taking me then or not?'

"He and the others were punching and kicking my seat and I said 'please don't do that'."

Mr Singh, who also works as a music teacher, said that he had been wearing a face mask due to Covid-19 and this was only his second shift back as a taxi driver since lockdown.

When he asked the men to wear theirs as they entered his taxi, they refused.

He hadn't realised that the men had removed a headrest and thrown it out of the window until later in the journey, when he asked what had happened to it.

He added: "It was a horrible experience.

"When I got home I couldn't sleep all night and was very unwell, I am diabetic and I was having breathing problems so my wife called an ambulance.

Mr Singh, who described himself as an active and charitable member of the Tilehurst community, said that he doesn't feel he could work a night shift again and has been left scarred by the experience because he was concerned the behaviour would escalate and that the men may have become violent.

He added that, when he first picked the four men up there didn't seem to be a problem, but as the journey went on their behaviour "totally changed".

Thames Valley Police has confirmed it is investigating the reports of racially aggravated public order, common assault, and criminal damage.

It happened about 11pm on Saturday (September 19) starting at Rose Kiln Lane and into Hampshire.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101 referencing 43200295092.

Jolly decent of them.

Clearly the DJ didn't think there was enough evidence to prove the case, thus the dismissal of charges.

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IDFIMH

So what's the difference between the DJ dimissing the case against two of them, but acquitting another?

Could understand it if there had been a jury involved and the judge had dismissed the case against the two, and the jury acquitted the other one, but presumably no jury here?

The two were dismissed before the end of the trial, I suspect once the prosecution had finished their case.

The one wasn't dismissed at that stage, as the DJ would have decided there was a case to answer. However, once the defense had finished the DJ found the defendant not guilty.

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IDFIMH

Thanks - was waiting to see if any local press report would shed any more light, but nothing I can see.

But, for what it's worth, this reads like the cases against the pair were dismissed before trial, rather than during it.

And this kind of report reads a bit like that Colston statue thing in Bristol last week - the final few paragraphs read like the author thinks they did it, but that the three accused just 'got off'.

But it would obviously be interesting to know a bit more about why the cases against the two were dismissed, and what happened at the trial of the third accused


Three men cleared after alleged Sikh taxi driver abuse

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/new ... ver-abuse/

A WILTSHIRE man who was charged in connection with an incident that left a taxi driver fearing for his life has had his case dismissed.

Billy-Sam Shervell, of Station Road in Minety was charged with racially and religiously-aggravated criminal damage after an incident in a taxi travelling from Reading to Basingstoke on September 19, 2020.

Sikh taxi driver Vaneet Singh had allegedly been racially abused and assaulted, and his taxi damaged. He claimed that a headrest was removed and thrown from the cab.

Shervell, 21, was one of three men charged in connection with the incident, and had his case dismissed by District Judge Timothy Pattinson last week.

He was due to stand trial at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court on January 4, having denied the charge in July.

District Judge Pattinson also dismissed the case of co-defendant, Frankie Gregory.

The 20-year-old, of Moat Close, Bramley, Hampshire, faced a charge of racially and religiously-aggravated common assault.

Dean Smith,20, of Paices Hill, Aldermaston, Berkshire, was found not guilty after a trial. He was cleared of four counts of racially and religiously-aggravated assault, as well as a racially and religiously-aggravated public order offence, theft of a phone charger and threatening to commit criminal damage to the vehicle.

Speaking to the Adver’s sister paper The Reading Chronicle in September 2020, Mr Singh, from Tilehurst, said he feared for his life.

He added: "It was a horrible experience.

"When I got home I couldn't sleep all night and was very unwell, I am diabetic and I was having breathing problems so my wife called an ambulance."

Mr Singh added that he felt that he didn’t feel like he could work a night shift again.