Taxi Driver Online

If this vehicle had cctv perhaps this thug might be in police custody by now?
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Nottingham Evening Post

November 20, 2006 Monday

HEADLINE: I thought 'I'm going to die'

A Taxi driver thought he was going to be killed when a man held a knife to his neck and demanded his earnings. The man is the latest victim in a string of attacks against Nottingham's taxi drivers.

He said: "When I saw the knife in his hand I thought, 'this is it'. I knew there have been other attacks recently and people before me have been stabbed. "I couldn't work the rest of the day and I'm still scared. I'm going to stop driving taxis and look for another job.

"I wasn't sure if I was ever going to see my kids again. Now I just keep hugging them thinking I might not have been here."

The driver, 32, who does not want to be named, picked up a man and a woman wearing a purple dressing gown from Morrell Bank in Bestwood at about 4pm on Saturday.

He drove them to a house in St Ann's and waited for them in Serlby Rise before taking them back to Bestwood. The woman asked to be dropped off at Morrell Bank but the man continued with the driver to the post office in Andover Road and then to Barent Walk.

The father-of-seven, from Highbury Vale, said: "He asked how much it was and I told him £18 at which point he got out and I thought 'he's going to run'. "But then I saw him walk around the back of the car and thinking he was going to pay, I rolled my window down.

"I saw the knife in his hand and before I knew it he had it to my throat and was demanding money." He handed over less than £50. On October 13 a woman taxi driver was threatened at knife point by a youth who stole cash.

And on September 10 Zahid Rashid, 44, was beaten and throttled before cash and belongings were grabbed. Between July and September there were eight other attacks on taxi drivers in the city.

The offender in Saturday's attack case was described by police as white, aged 17 to 19, 6ft 1in and wearing a black track suit with the hood up and a baseball cap. The inside of the hood was dark red.

The woman he was travelling with was described as mixed race aged 18 to 21, plump, with black hair tied up and wearing a purple dressing gown.

Anyone with information is asked to call Oxclose Lane police station on 0115 967 0999.
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