Taxi Driver Online

Bradford taxi driver robbed as he faced retirement

Bradford Crown Court heard that 19-year-old Keane McGloughlin had only been out of prison for 20 days when he carried out the robbery on September 22 last year.

Prosecutor Emma Handley told the court that the taxi driver picked up three men who directed him to a dead end.

Two rear seat passengers got out and donned balaclavas before punching the driver to the head.

The front seat passenger also joined in as the victim tried to protect himself.

He was robbed of £45 in cash and a phone charger. The trio fled as the victim called out for help.

McGloughlin, from Holme Wood in Bradford, had been released from prison on September 2 and fitted with a tag.

He was identified through GPS data which put him in the vicinity. He was found by police hiding under a blanket on a bunkbed at his home and arrested.

In a victim statement the taxi driver said he had been working for more than 20 years and nothing like that attack had ever happened to him before.
He said he was due to retire and was now scared to return to work.

On September 21, the day before the taxi robbery, McGloughlin and another male were seen to leave a Bradford coffee shop and to then loiter nearby.

When a man left the same coffee shop and walked to his motorcycle, he was confronted by McGloughlin who had put on a balaclava and was clutching a metal pole. The second man was also wearing a balaclava.

One shouted “You got a problem?” and, in reaction, the motorcyclist took a bike chain from his pocket and raised it in self-defence as McGloughlin approached.

McGloughlin swung the metal pole at the motorcyclist before retreating followed by the biker. The police were called and reviewed CCTV footage from the shop.

The court heard that McGloughlin, who pleaded guilty to robbery and having an offensive weapon, had multiple previous convictions including 22 for theft and kindred offences.

Mitigating, Jane Brady said McGloughlin had an “unenviable” criminal record for a man of his age but had had an “incredibly difficult” upbringing growing up in and out of care.

She said he was “adamant” that he would move away from his peer group and since being in custody had completed several courses and had the offer of a scaffolding job on release.

His Honour Judge Tahir Khan KC sentenced McGloughlin to three years’ imprisonment for robbery plus six months, to be served concurrently, for possession of an offensive weapon in public.

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And the moon is made out of cheese.

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