Taxi Driver Online

Cabbie faces spell in jail


A TAXI driver accused of punching and stabbing a fellow cabbie in the neck with a screwdriver has been warned he faces prison.

A jury unanimously convicted Middlesbrough hackney carriage driver Sajid Rafi of assault causing actual bodily harm.

Following the verdict after just over an hour’s deliberation, Judge Peter Bowers told him: “Be warned - you may well get a prison sentence.”

He bailed Rafi until sentencing on May 22, adding: “You can expect to go to prison when you come back. You used a weapon.”

Dad-of-three Rafi, 37, stands to lose his livelihood as his taxi licence was suspended after the incident. He was also said to manage properties.

It was alleged that he launched an unprovoked attack where he lunged and repeatedly stabbed at Fida Hussain, 40, injuring his chest and neck with small puncture wounds.

Each man said the other was the aggressor in the incident on Wilson Street, where they were queued at about 3.30am on July 27 last year.

Mr Hussain, a member of the Hackney Carriage Association panel, said a customer complained Rafi refused to take him and told him to “f*** off”.

He said he went to talk to Rafi, who was parked in front, but was met with verbal abuse and physical aggression.

He told jurors Rafi punched him in the face, picked up an implement from between the car seats and lunged at him.

Mr Hussain said he was caught on the neck with the weapon, said to be a yellow-handled screwdriver, and Rafi threatened to kill him.

He said he ran to his vehicle but Rafi followed, got his door open and lunged at him again.

He was seen bleeding at the scene and immediately complained he had been stabbed. Rafi drove off and was arrested shortly afterwards, still driving his taxi in town.

Rafi, of Ayresome Park Road, Middlesbrough, denied the assault claiming he acted in self defence. He said the allegations were “totally false”.

He said Mr Hussain threatened to kill him and “knock my head off” and “viciously” attacked him, hitting him repeatedly for no apparent reason.

“I’d expect it from passengers but not from a fellow taxi driver,” he told the jury.

He denied threatening, abusing or punching Mr Hussain, getting a weapon or thrusting it at the fellow cabbie. He suggested the victim’s injuries were self-inflicted and claimed it was Mr Hussain who had a weapon.

The jury heard Rafi was previously convicted and jailed for 30 months for assaulting a passenger with a spanner in 1995.

It was also said that Mr Hussain was arrested in 2005 and 2006 over complaints of alleged violence to other taxi drivers.

But nothing came of it and he was never charged or brought to court. He said both incidents involved a driver who lied about him.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Would this be too old to show up on a CRB check

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Looks like his luck finally ran out.

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IDFIMH

Lets hope so, but as we know this is never the case.

nope, everything stays on it forever, and depending on the sentence, it could be exempt under the rehabilitation of offenders act (suspended vs custodial and then of so many years)



he got 2 and a half years porridge in 95.

how did he get his current taxi badge with a previous unspent conviction for assault on a passenger?...

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most