Cabbies in Bournemouth are furious that a man who threatened driver Keith Lickman has been spared jail.
Apparently wielding a kitchen knife and threatening to stab your cab driver isn’t enough to justify a stay behind bars. Drunken Steven Flynn went into his house to get cash to pay a £10 fare but then demanded that Mr. Lickman accept £5 “or you get this” – and produced the kitchen knife. Mr. Lickman then agreed before fleeing and calling the police, who later seized two kitchen knives at Flynn’s home.
Suspended Sentence
Flynn received a nine-month prison sentence but this was suspended for 18 months after the court heard that he had been drunk at the time and that the offence was “out of character”. Flynn was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work, observe a three-month curfew and pay £1,000 compensation.
But Ashley Miller, chairman of Bournemouth Taxi and Private Hire Taxi Association, told the Daily Echo: “We’re far from happy. The courts should come down on the side of the taxi driver and jail anybody who threatens them with a knife.
“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. If they don’t jail them there’s no deterrent,” concluded Mr. Miller.