Bournemouth Cabbies Fuming Over Knife Attacker Sentence
Monday 31st August 2009
Cabbies are fuming after a man who threatened a Bournemouth taxi driver with a kitchen knife in a drunken argument over a £10 fare was not jailed, but given a suspended sentence.
Steven Flynn threatened United Taxis driver, Keith Lickman, after the driver asked for £10 to cover the fare, Bournemouth Crown Court heard.
Flynn received a nine-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months after Recorder Anthony Coleman heard that he had been drunk at the time and that the offence was “out of character”.
But Ashley Miller, chairman of Bournemouth Taxi and Private Hire Taxi Association, told the Echo: “If they don’t jail them there’s no deterrent”.
Prosecutor Desmond Duffy told the court that Flynn was picked up by United Taxis driver Keith Lickman at Exeter Road in the early hours of April 10. When they reached Flynn’s home in Tyndale Close, Bournemouth, the 50-year-old cabbie asked for £10 to settle the bill. Flynn went into the house, returning with £10.
Mr Duffy added: “He asked Mr Lickman to take £5 and there was a brief dispute about what money was owed before Mr Flynn pulled out a knife, saying: ‘It’s five pounds or you get this.’”
The court heard Mr Lickman was “really scared” and had handed over £5 in return for the £10 note. He drove off and called the police, who arrested Flynn at his home where two kitchen knives were seized.
In Flynn’s defence, Robert Gray said: “That night he was drunk; that is why he acted out of character. He has no previous convictions and has shown significant remorse.”
Sentencing Flynn, who admitted having a bladed article in a public place, Recorder Anthony Coleman told him: “Mr Lickman was only doing his job and is entitled to receive the protection of these courts against such drunken, yobbish and violent behaviour.
“For any offence involving a knife used in a public place the starting point is going to be custody.”
He added: “I am satisfied this was an isolated offence that was out of character.”
Imposing a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, Recorder Coleman said he had taken into account Flynn’s remorse, guilty plea and previous good character. He ordered 20-year-old Flynn to complete 150 hours of unpaid work, observe a three-month curfew and pay £1,000 compensation to his victim.
Speaking afterwards Mr Miller said: “We’re far from happy. It doesn’t happen a lot in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch but occasionally it does.
“The courts should come down on the side of the taxi driver and jail anybody who threatens them with a knife.”
Mr Miller added that he would not personally drive around Bournemouth on a Friday or Saturday night without a safety screen between himself and the passenger.
“I wouldn’t feel safe driving a saloon car taxi in Bournemouth. That’s why more and more taxi drivers are having cameras put into their taxis as a deterrent.
“If somebody is caught walking along the street with a knife they face a jail sentence while someone can pull a knife on a taxi driver and get a suspended sentence,” he said.
Source; BournemouthEcho.co.uk
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