‘Cabbie stamped on me in fare row’
Sat Oct 09 2010
A Mum was dragged from a car by her hair and stamped on in a dispute with a taxi driver over a fare.
Aimee Todd says she got into the cab outside Sunderland’s Glass Spider, and agreed to pay when they arrived at her home because she had run out of cash.
But when they pulled up she discovered she had forgotten her keys, so promised to settle the bill and cover the cost of the extra journey within hours.
But the Peterlee 24-year-old, who is mum to 18-month-old Jimmy, said the cabbie flew into a rage and told her he would be keeping the iPhone he grabbed from her.
Aimee said she refused to leave the car and tried to reason with him, but was pulled from the vehicle and attacked, with her leg being stamped on twice.
She faces plastic surgery for a gaping wound to the inside of her right foot, and needs crutches because it is fractured.
The shaken-up shop assistant, who works in Peterlee’s Phones4U, has relieved the horrific ordeal to help police in their appeal for help, with detectives speaking to Wearside taxi firms and reviewing CCTV as part of inquiries.
“He took my phone. I said he couldn’t do that and he said he would take me to the police station, so I said ‘Take me, I don’t know what else I can do’.”
“He swore at me, told me to get out the taxi."
“Then he jumped out, just lost his temper, dragged me out by my hair and dragged me across the path."
“Then he got in his car and drove off."
“I knocked a friend out of bed and asked if I could say at hers."
“The next day I woke up and she came in and asked what had happened and I just broke down crying.”
Aimee added: “I’m just in shock, I don’t think it’s sunk in yet."
“I’ve moved back in with my mam, because I can’t care for my boy and can’t face going home."
“I won’t be able to rest until they find him.”
One of the cousins Aimee had been out with on the night, which started in Durham then moved on to Liquid in Sunderland, had reported her missing when they could not track her down after she left.
The attack happened at 1.40am, in the Basingstoke Road area of Peterlee.
The driver of the silver or white saloon taxi was 40 to 45 years old, balding with short mousey brown hair and spoke with a broad North East accent, possibly from Gateshead.
Aimee’s iPhone, worth £250, is white with a crack in one corner.
Anyone with information can call Durham Constabulary on 0345 60 60 365, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Source; http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/loca ... _1_2004396
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