STOKE

Taxi driver Shakeel Abbas has been jailed after he stole £13,000 from a vulnerable customer.

The 37-year-old befriended his victim after collecting him from hospital and taking him to his Uttoxeter home.

He became the man’s regular taxi driver and the victim divulged that his parents had died and left him a lot of money.

During the next three months the defendant persuaded his victim to lend him various amounts of money which totalled £13,000.

Now Abbas has been jailed for 14 months at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.

Prosecutor Nigel Stelling said the victim was vulnerable and suffered from depression and other mental health difficulties after his parents died.

He was admitted to hospital after taking an overdose and he called a taxi when he was discharged.

Mr Stelling said: “The defendant was the driver. It seems the man continued to use the defendant for his journeys thereafter.

“At one point, possibly on the first journey, he divulged his parents had died and he had inherited a substantial amount of money. The defendant took advantage of the situation and asked the man to lend him various amounts of money."

The theft came to light when social services visited the man and he said he could not afford cleaners.

Abbas, of Park Street, Burton, pleaded guilty to theft.

Stephen Hennessey, mitigating, said the defendant had a gambling addiction but has now registered himself on a national database and signed documentation so he is subject to a lifetime ban in all casinos and gambling establishments in the UK.

Mr Hennessey asked for Abbas to be given a suspended sentence so he can continue to address his gambling addiction and be in a position to pay compensation.

But Judge David Fletcher said the offending had to be met with an immediate jail sentence.

Judge Fletcher told Abbas: “This was a deeply unattractive offence of theft because it appears you deliberately utilised your status as a taxi driver and involved yourself with someone who was vulnerable.

"Over the period of about three months, in the knowledge he had lost his parents and been left their life savings, you systematically divested him of all that money. Not a brass farthing has been paid back to him.

“There is no doubt this was targeting of a victim. You abused your position as a taxi driver appallingly.”

https://goo.gl/X5P4bT 

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LEEDS

Taxi drivers have warned they could boycott picking passengers up from Leeds Festival after they were left queuing in traffic jams last year.

The festival is again being held in Bramham Park from 24-26 August, about 11 miles (18km) from the city centre.

Taxis now have to use the public entrance and face heavier traffic after new plans were introduced last year.

Melvin Benn, of organisers Festival Republic, said: "We are very comfortable with the transport plan."

Leeds city councillors discussed traffic and parking arrangements for the music festival at a meeting, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Between 2008 and 2016, taxis picked up festival-goers using a public transport entrance, accessible via the A1, said taxi drivers.

Now taxis and private hire vehicles access the site via the red gate, only accessible on the A64 York Road.

Mike Utting, from the Leeds Hackney Carriage Association, said: "We have a living to earn, and we don't want to be stuck in a traffic jam for three hours.

"We are not happy about it at all."

Andy Howard, from Streamline Telecabs, said: "We may find that a lot of drivers just won't go up."

In a letter to councillors, the association stated some drivers took up to 90 minutes to leave the festival grounds and journeys back into Leeds ended up costing £40, about double the normal fare.

A report said some delays in 2017 were due to poor communications between organisers and drivers.

Mr Benn told the meeting: "We have built on last year's traffic plan - there is a change around the taxis so we get a drop off for parents and family members, and a pick up more or less in the same area as the taxis."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-45186661