BELFAST

 A taxi driver allegedly used his car to repeatedly raid a supermarket for televisions and electrical equipment, the High Court has heard.

Stephen McAuley is charged with nine separate thefts from Tesco, and also twice stealing high-value goods from a B&Q branch.

The 41-year-old, of Lancaster Street in Belfast, is charged with stealing items worth more than £7,000 between January 31 and March 4 this year.
Refusing bail on Tuesday, a judge said the alleged offences involved "a remarkable, systematic course of criminal behaviour".

McAuley and a co-accused allegedly used the same modus operandi every time they targeted a Tesco store at Newtownbreda, south east Belfast.
A Crown lawyer described one incident where security tags were removed from two TV sets valued at £658.

She claimed they were then taken out and put in the back of McAuley's taxi.

McAuley was identified after the cab firm was contacted.

CCTV footage from Tesco revealed a number of similar high-value thefts involving the same taxi, the court heard.

Two other incidents related to thefts of products worth £1,236 and £1,298 from a B&Q store in Newry.

Defence counsel Michael Ward disclosed that McAuley was dismissed by the taxi company, but is now working for another operator in Belfast.

Bail was denied due to the risk of re-offending.
The judge, Sir Anthony Hart, said: "There's clearly a good prima facie case against the applicant of having engaged in a remarkable, systematic course of criminal behaviour over a period of about five-six weeks.

"The allegations are he was taking part, providing the vehicle and driving the vehicle for himself and a co-accused to steal increasingly large amounts of electrical equipment."

Source : Belfast Telegraph
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ROTHERHAM

A South Yorkshire man accused of sexually abusing two teenage girls he is said to have met while working as a delivery driver and a taxi driver denied the allegations when he gave evidence at court today.

Khurram Javed, 35, of Clifton Crescent, Rotherham is currently on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of three counts of sexual assault and one count of rape.

The four charges relate to separate incidents, involving two complainants, that are alleged to have taken place in Rotherham between May 2008 and March 2014.


Neither of the complainants can be named for legal reasons.

The first of Javed's alleged victims, Girl A, claims she met him when he was working as a delivery driver at the Sizzling Wok takeaway in Badsley Moor Road, Rotherham when she was aged between 12 and 13-years-old.

Javed's offending against Girl A is alleged to have taken place when she visited the takeaway on her own some time between May 2008 and March 2009, when he would have been aged between 25 and 26-years-old.

He is alleged to have sexually assaulted the girl twice in an alleyway next to the takeaway.

When asked about the allegations by his defence barrister, Patrick Cassidy, Javed said he did not know Girl A, and denied ever sexually assaulting anyone in the alleyway next to the Sizzling Wok.

Mr Cassidy asked Javed: "Did you ever take any child down that alleyway, or sexually touch Girl A there," to which Javed replied: "No, never."
Javed told the court that he had been subjected to racist abuse by some of the children who congregated around the parade of Badsley Moor Road, and on one occasion two girls had attempted to get into his delivery van, which he reported to the police.

Girl B met Javed when he picked her up as a passenger in his taxi in March 2014 and drove her to a friend's house.

During the 10 minute journey he told Girl B his name was 'Jay' and the pair swapped numbers.
Javed is accused of sexually assaulting and raping Girl B on March 5, 2014 after collecting her from the supported living accommodation she was staying at. She would have been 16-years-old at the time.

He took the girl to his friend's shop in Wakefield, and Girl B alleges that he sexually assaulted her in a bedroom above the shop.

She claims he then gave her a three-litre of bottle of cider to drink on the journey back to Rotherham, before parking the car up in a lay-by and raping her in the back of his car.

Javed, who is married with children, denies both allegations, but accepts taking Girl B to Wakefield.

Giving evidence at court, Javed told jurors that the pair had kissed shortly after first meeting, but said he decided to stop all romantic contact between them when she told him she was 16-years-old during their visit to Wakefield.

He also denied giving Girl B alcohol, and said the reason had pulled over in a lay-by was because she was 'upset' with him for refusing to enter into a relationship with her.

"She was upset. I told her: 'You're too young, I can't handle that'. She was talking about how we could be together," Javed told the court.
Javed denies all charges.

The trial continues.

source : Sheffield Telegraph.

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NEW YORK

A string of five apparent New York taxi driver suicides in five months has advocates concerned about the impact of Uber and Lyft, as well as the loans cabdrivers have relied on to purchase taxi medallions.

Yu Mein Chow was mourned by friends and family this weekend after his body was found floating in the East River—it’s believed that he jumped to his death after being unable to make a payment on the $700,000 loan he took out in 2011 to pay for his taxi medallion.

New York City’s cab industry has been dramatically transformed by the influx of around 70,000 Uber and Lyft cars over the last six years.

The competition has forced some taxi drivers, most of whom are immigrants, to work 12 to 15 hours shifts while watching their wages plummet. Another driver shot himself on Feb. 5 outside City Hall after penning a Facebook post that blamed the industry’s woes on politicians.

Chow, whose wife has been battling Stage 4 colon cancer, took out a $700,000 mortgage with Melrose Credit Union in 2011 and initially listed only the medallion as his collateral, according to documents viewed by the New York Post.

However, he refinanced five years later and put everything he owned as collateral—including his home—sources told the Post.

“It’s more strict than anything we’ve ever seen,’’ New York Taxi Workers Alliance Executive Director Bhairavi Desai said. “They are not negotiating lower interest rates and are now requiring the owners put personal property like their homes up as collateral. This is ruining drivers’ lives.”

Before he took his own life, Chow could no longer afford his daughter’s college education nor his wife’s medical bills.

The credit union, which was taken over by the government last year due to “unsafe and unsound” practices, also reportedly financed the loan of Nicanor Ochisor, a taxicab driver who hanged himself in March over financial woes that he blamed on Uber and Lyft.

Regarding Chow’s death, a spokesperson from Uber told Fox News: “We are deeply saddened and our thoughts are with his family.”

"These are tragic losses and our hearts go out to the family and friends affected," a Lyft spokesperson told Fox News.

Taxi medallions, which were once sold for over $1 million, can now be had for as little as $175,000, according to data from the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The New York City Council is considering several bills that would curb the expansion of ride-sharing services—by charging annual fees to drivers, limiting how many apps one person can drive for or limiting the number of cars each company can have in operation.

A family member set up a GoFundMe to cover the costs of Chow’s widow’s medical bills.
“It’s a tragedy,” taxi driver Bigu Haider, 53, told the Post. “This never used to happen before.”

Source = Fox News

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CORNWALL

What should have been a fun night out turned into a horrifying ordeal when the driver of an unmarked taxi set fire to his passenger's doormat after she refused to let him into her house.

Sophie Nagappa, 23, got into an unmarked taxi on The Moor in Falmouth in the early hours of Sunday morning (May 27) with her sister Chloe and a male friend, and they soon realised their mistake as the man began driving like a "maniac" and acting inappropriately.

When they got to their house in Truro at around 4am, the driver tried to invite himself in. Sophie and Chloe refused and ran inside, and before long they noticed flames coming up from under the front door and found that their doormat had been set on fire.

Sophie said: "Basically I wanted to share this so that someone else doesn’t make our same stupid mistake. Always order a taxi from the company and make sure it’s marked as a taxi! Very scary experience."

According to Sophie, the man was driving dangerously and breaking hard, and also stopped several times to smoke and speak on the phone.

When he overheard the three passengers talking about plans to go to a house party, Sophie says he tried to come along with them. They decided to go home instead and after dropping them off he said that he was coming into their house. Sophie says that she and sister Chloe then ran away. The man then knocked on the front door to which Sophie's mum answered, and he asked for more money even though Sophie says that he had already paid him. He then apparently asked her mum if he was coming in, and she said "no".

Shortly afterwards they found that the doormat had been set on fire, and they had to extinguish the flames with pans of water.

She has since reported the incident to Devon and Cornwall Police, who told her that they will be checking the CCTV footage from that night in order to try and identify the man.

Sophie said that the man was very overweight, black, under six feet tall, had a slight beard and was wearing a black suit and gold chain with a cross on it.

Source : Thisisthewestcountry.co.uk