Taxi Driver Online

Ripley thugs assault taxi driver after refusing to pay fare home from funeral

A pair of thugs assaulted a taxi driver after refusing to pay him for driving them home from a funeral. Derby Crown Court heard how Luke Varley and Bailey Charlton punched the cabbie and left him standing in just his underwear after one of them told him “I ain’t paying for ****” as he stopped the car.

The driver’s broken and stolen mobile phone was then found in a bouquet of flowers Charlton had taken from the wake. Sentencing the pair, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “Stand up, you two. You are getting a bit long in the tooth now Mr Varley for behaving in the way that you.

“You have a tendency, when you have had too much to drink, for your fists to come out. Something had kicked off in relation to this funeral but I don’t know what it was.

"There had been a funeral for a very, very, close relative but there was something else, which I have read and which I am not going to go into in open court. It is not an excuse but it is an explanation.

“I don’t know what you are doing associating yourself with him (Varley), Bailey Charlton, you will only end up getting into trouble given his record. You got yourself involved when you should not have done but you used a level of violence which was not as much as he used and I would describe you as very, very, immature and particularly stupid.”

Lucky Thandi, prosecution, said the incident took place following a funeral for Varley’s brother in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, on August 13, 2022. She said a taxi driver picked the two men and a woman up from a pub in the village and was asked to take them home to Ripley.

The prosecutor said on the way Varley, who was the front seat passenger, asked the cabbie about cameras in his taxi saying “I can’t rob you then, can I?”. Miss Thandi said: “The taxi driver was not too concerned at first but when they pulled into Ivy Grove, in Ripley, Mr Varley asked him to stop and then said ‘I ain’t paying ****’ then got out of the car and someone began removing items from the boot. Mr Varley then asked to be taken to a cash machine and the taxi driver challenged him.

“Mr Varley then punched him to the back of the head and pulled him to the floor with one hand around his neck. He continued to punch and slap the driver and then Mr Charlton also began assaulting him by throwing punches at him.

“He managed to escape but all of his clothing had been pulled off him apart from his underwear.”

Miss Thandi said the driver noticed all of them go into an address and waited for the police to arrive. She said when they did the driver’s mobile phone was discovered inside a bouquet of funeral flowers Charlton was carrying.

In a victim impact statement, the cabbie told how he has suffered physically, emotionally and financially because of what happened to him.

Varley, 37, of Warmwells Lane, Ripley, pleaded guilty to assault and making off without payment and was handed a 13-month jail sentence, suspended for 21 months, with 15 rehabilitation sessions. He was also ordered to take part in a 90-day alcohol abstinence monitoring program, to carry out 160 hours unpaid work and to pay £300 compensation.

Charlton, 20, of Derby Road, Ripley and who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to theft and was handed a 12-month community order, with a six-month alcohol monitoring program and to attend 20 rehabilitation sessions.

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IDFIMH

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IDFIMH

is it me or does that report sound as if the journo was high on something and the editor never prood read it ?

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

If Carlsberg did ironies...

And I think it is just you, Edders. Article is pretty straight bat, and most of it is either direct quotes, indirect quotes or basic statements of fact

Surely we can't have that.

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IDFIMH