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Southport taxi driver guilty of spitting in fellow driver’s face
A TAXI driver has been fined over £600 for spitting in man’s face. Martin Turner, 48, erupted in anger after he thought fellow taxi driver Colin Roby, 54, had purposefully parked in the wrong place to gain fares.
Mr Roby, who drives a silver Hackney cab and also has a radio system operated by Radio Yellow Top, had gone to Southport Train Station to pick up regular customer Claire Davidson, at 3.15pm on December 19, last year.
When he arrived at the station, which isn’t operated as an open rank, there was a queue of people waiting but no taxis.
Speaking during the trial at South Sefton Magistrates yesterday, Mr Roby, who lives in Southport, said that some people had got annoyed when Claire got into the taxi, as they had been waiting longer. He added: “I explained that I was from Radio Yellow Top and Claire had phoned us.”
Two other taxi drivers then arrived and got upset with Mr Roby. He said: “They weren’t aware that I had come for a radio call. Then Martin arrived and he called me a fat ******* and an ugly ****, and asked me what I was doing there. I just ignored it and told him I was picking up a radio job.”
Upset with the situation, Ms Davidson walked off and Mr Roby offered a lift to Michael Dally, who was waiting for a taxi. The pair had just got in the car to leave when Turner appeared at Mr Roby’s open window. Mr Roby said: “He put his face near mine and spat in my face, then walked off.
“It landed on my face and some went down onto my coat. I was that shocked I didn’t know what I felt at the time.”
Giving evidence as an independent witness, Mr Dally, said: “He (Turner) said (to Mr Roby) ‘**** off, get off the taxi rank and don’t bother coming back’. He leaned in and spat at him.”
Mr Roby and Mr Dally immediately reported the incident to British Transport Police officers, based at the station, and Turner was detained.
Representing himself during the trial, Turner, of Owen Avenue, Ormskirk, denied the assault charge. Speaking in court, he said: “There was verbal abuse, I hold my hands up to that.” He later added: “I was very irritated and might have sprayed, but I never physically spat.”
But the magistrates rejected his defence and found him guilty of assault. Roger Manley, chair of the magistrates, said: “I consider spitting to be a particularly nasty form of assault and it was committed in front of members of the pubic, and on someone who was providing a service to them. Until now you were a man of good character, it is a sad thing that you lose that.”
Turner was fined £375, plus court costs and compensation, bringing the total to £640.
Speaking after the hearing, Mr Roby, who has been a taxi driver for six years, said: “I’m relieved, I just wanted to get it all over with.
“When it happened I was shaking. I’m not an aggressive person so it was a shock. Imagine if there was someone there that day who had never been to Southport before and they witnessed that – what’s their impression of the town going to be?”
Mr Roby said he has not let the incident affect his work: “I was straight back out there – this won’t bother me.”
Mr Roby said there has been an on-going dispute between Hackney drivers and station drivers who pay £411 a year so that they can park there. He added: “I know other drivers are working there but they don’t know if I’ve had a phone call for someone who is waiting there. The attitude of the station drivers needs to change.”
Tony Crabtree, secretary of North Sefton Hackney Carriage Association, said: “There are 120-130 Hackney carriages that can use the ranks anywhere in Sefton, except that station rank, which is on private land owned by Network Rail.
“They have about 31 passes that people can buy, but after that it’s a closed shop. There are about five places where Hackney carriages can stand, so if they get a request to pick someone up from the station they can stop there, but the other drivers have no idea if they are responding to a booking or not. It’s constantly causing trouble. The simple way for it all to be solved is for the station to be an open rank like everywhere else.”
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