Tyneside cabbie had noose put round his neck
Jun 28 2010
A taxi driver today told of the terrifying moment he had a gun held to his head in a robbery by thugs calling themselves the Walker bomber boys.
Thomas Grimes and Mark Clews targeted two cabbies who had picked them up, trying to throttle one of them with rope and threatening him with a gun.
Taxi drivers Mark Vainola and David Vincent have been left scared to pick up passengers after their ordeals on the same night.
Grimes and Clews put rope round the neck of former Royal Navy weapons engineer Mr Vainola from the back seat and pressed a gun against his head before subjecting him to a brutal beating and stealing from him.
Now the pair have been locked up for three-and-a-half years by a judge at Newcastle Crown Court,.
The 33-year-old, from Howdon, North Tyneside, who witnessed the conflict in the former Yugoslavia during his three years of service, said: “The whole experience was terrifying.
“All I remember is someone slipping a rope around my neck and then another person putting a gun against my head.
“I’m very, very angry because someone could have died. If it had been a woman or an old man they might not have survived this attack.
“But I’m also angry that they only got three and a half years. The police were fantastic, but the justice system let me down.”
Mr Vainola bravely tried to fight off his attackers and said he feared he might die in the robbery. He was punched and kicked and suffered a cracked rib and broken nose.
He said: “I remember getting attacked for 15 minutes and then fighting them off. I was just thinking, ‘If I’m going to die, then I want to put up a fight before I go’.
“The whole thing was just mindless. These men attacked me for £120 in takings and it could have killed me. It’s cost them three and a half years of their lives too - it was a stupid thing to do.
“My brother had just returned from Afghanistan and when he found out what happened he couldn’t believe it. He saw his friends die and he couldn’t believe that someone would just beat up someone doing their job.
“That’s why I’m so angry. I was just doing my job and then these thugs just come along and try and take your earnings without working at all. I sometimes work for up to 14 hours a day and then for someone just to steal your money.
“There are people putting their lives on the line in war-torn countries, and then they come home and are attacked. It’s disgusting.”
Grimes and Clews had already attacked Mr Vincent a couple of hours before setting upon Mr Vainola.
Mr Vincent had picked up a group of four at High Bridge taxi rank in Newcastle, around 2.30am last September.
After dropping one of them off the remaining three asked to go to the Bird’s Nest pub in Walker and once behind the pub they launched their attack.
Clews put his arm round the taxi driver’s throat then punched him in the face and shouted ‘where’s your taxi bag?’
One of the attackers grabbed a plastic bag from under the driver’s seat and they thought they had his money but it was, in fact, a bag of sugar.
Later the same night the thugs contacted another cab firm and asked to be picked up at Westbourne Social Club in Walker.
Grimes, Clews and the third, unidentified man, got in Mr Vainola’s car and said they wanted to go and see a man on Scrogg Road to buy some Ecstasy.
When they got there the pair started acting suspiciously in the back and the driver realised he was under threat.
Alec Burns, prosecuting, said: “He realised something was wrong and a man behind him put his hands over his seat and tried to put something around his throat. He thought it was chicken wire at first but it was probably rope
“He got his hands on the rope but as he tried to life it over his head he was punched a few times, although we can’t say exactly who did what.
“They told him they had a gun, he could only see the end of it and it was put to his temple.”
Mr Vainola tried to fend off his attackers but he was punched and kicked in the face.
The robbers then stole his stereo, radio handset, £120 of takings and his car keys before telling him: “You’ve been done by the Walker bomber boys.”
The court heard both drivers are now worried about picking up groups of young men at night and had to have time off work because of the trauma.
Recorder Graham Hyland told them: “You subjected two innocent taxi drivers performing a public service, who require protection from the likes of you, to terrifying ordeals.”
Grimes, 20, of Scrogg Road, and Clews, 19, of Merton Road, both Walker, pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery.
Recorder Hyland said if they had been older they would have been locked up for five years but as they are under 21 they were sent to a young offender institute for three-and-a-half years each, sentences they greeted with winks and thumbs-up to supporters in the public gallery.
Brian Heggarty, for Grimes, said: “This was committed after binge drinking. He had little parental guidance in his upbringing.”
Robert Spragg, for Clews, said: “This was way out of his league, it was a one-off moment of madness.”
Source; chroniclelive.co.uk
Login
Register
FAQ
It's hardly surprising the kids don't fear the law when they hand out such lenient sentences at court 
