Taxi Driver Online

Quite a difficult one to follow closely, particularly with the different people/names involved, and the convoluted nature of the court processes and sentencing stuff


Taxi driver's terror after being robbed by passengers

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/n ... assengers/

A taxi driver ‘no longer works nights’ after being robbed and threatened by three passengers.

Ellie Wade, 25, and Jordan Thorpe, 20, were spared jail at Burnley Crown Court on Friday (March 24) for their involvement in the robbery.

Claire Brocklebank, prosecuting, said Wade and Thorpe, along with ringleader Ryan Gardener, and another woman got in a taxi in Merlin Close, Leyland, at around 11pm on December 18, 2020.

Due to the long journey to near Preston, the taxi driver asked for the fare upfront and Gardener attempted to pay.

When his card was declined, the driver said they must either pay another way or get out of the taxi.

Gardener grabbed the taxi driver from the back seat and shouted ‘rob him, rob him’.

Thorpe helped in restraining the driver, with Wade stealing just over £20 in change.

Other items were stolen from the driver and the girls fled, Gardener got out of the car, reached back through the window and punched the driver.

Gardener and Thorpe ran off but returned along with Wade and held up the driver’s car keys saying he would have to pay £40 or £50 to get them back.

The group fled when residents started coming out of their houses to see what was going on.

During the incident, the driver had managed to press a button which alerted his company to what was happening, allowing them to call the police.

Thorpe denied his involvement until January this year when he pleaded guilty, admitting his involvement in the robbery.

Wade continues to deny her involvement in the robbery despite being found guilty by a jury following a trial earlier this year.

In a victim impact statement, the taxi driver said he has lost income as he no longer works nights which are busier and he struggled to sleep for some time after the incident.

He said during his time as a cabbie, nothing like this had ever happened to him.

Gardener pleaded guilty to his involvement and was given 16 months in a young offenders institute by the courts in 2021.

Mitigating for Thorpe, of Brook Street, Fulwood, Mr Parkinson said his client had only just turned 18 at the time of the robbery and the judge should consider that in the sentence.

He also said Thorpe has recently become and father and jailing him would take him away from the three-month-old and his partner.

Mitigating for Wade, of Langton Street, Preston, Isobel Thomas said Wade was a single mother and jailing her would have a significant impact on her daughter.

Ms Thomas also said Wade was drunk at the time and she has since cut down on drinking.

District Judge Richard Clews said he accepted neither of the pair instigated the robbery and they just reacted to Gardener’s behaviour.

Judge Clews handed Thorpe a 15-month detention in a young offenders institution, suspended for 18 months.

He will be subject to a curfew between 7pm and 6am for three months and must complete 135 hours of unpaid work.

Wade was handed an 18-month sentence, suspended for 18 months.

She must complete 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 150 hours of unpaid work.

very light sentence !

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

I think it's their age that has led to those sentences.

They weren't the main instigator but joined it.

The unpaid work will do them well, and hopefully they will learn that their actions do have consequences.

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IDFIMH