Oxford

A taxi driver from Marlow Bottom who blamed his wife for his own speeding fine has been sentenced to six months in prison.

Stephen Foster-Dight, 57, was detected by speeding cameras three times in the Oxford area in November and December 2012.

When sent notices, he provided officers with his wife's details for one of the tickets and details of a man in America for the others.

He was using his vehicle as a taxi at the time he was speeding. 

Foster-Dight was charged with perverting the course of justice and pleaded guilty at Oxford Crown Court.

He was sentenced on Thursday and given a 12 month driving ban.
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Glasgow

 A taxi driver who sexually assaulted a young woman in his car was caught thanks to a DNA check on a relative.

Patrick Cullen attacked the 24-year-old in a secluded lane near Rangers' Murray Park training ground in Milngavie in February 2011.

The 44-year-old remained at large despite a media appeal to catch the attacker.

However, in late 2012, a relative of Cullen appeared on the national DNA database, which helped police connect Cullen to DNA found at the scene at the time.

It led to Cullen being convicted of the sex attack after escaping justice for almost three years.

A judge warned him that he faces a lengthy custodial sentence when he returns to the High Court in Glasgow next month.

A jury heard how Cullen picked up his victim in the city's Glassford Street in the early hours of February 19, 2011.

Soon into the journey, Cullen, who claimed his name was Gary, began questioning his passenger on her sexuality and asking "rude questions".

His passenger told the court: "He was going on about how girls have sex, things like that. I felt uncomfortable - I don't like when people ask questions like that."

Cullen, of Moodiesburn, North Lanarkshire, then told the woman that he was "feeling horny".

He soon drove his private hire Chrysler into a quiet area in Finlay Rise in Milngavie, near to Murray Park, before halting the vehicle.

Recalling her ordeal, the woman said: "He told me to get into the back of the car. I was scared, but I did it."

Cullen then indecently assaulted his victim and made her perform a sex act on him.

He then dropped her home but demanded that she pay the £7 fare for the journey.

The victim called police and a hunt was launched to catch Cullen.

DNA was found near the scene and the woman was also able to help construct an e-fit of her attacker which bore a striking resemblance to Cullen.

However, it was not until a DNA check was carried out on a relative of Cullen that officers unearthed the similarities in the DNA profile.

It is not known why the check was carried out but the findings pointed police in the direction of Cullen.

Cullen insisted during the trial that the woman agreed to what happened in his car and that she "enjoyed" it.

He said: "It was two consenting adults performing a sex act."

Cullen also claimed, despite media appeals and the e-fit, that he had never been asked about the incident until police contacted him in September 2012.

Cullen had his bail continued until March.

But Lord Matthews warned: "In view of the nature of the offence a custodial sentence is very much on my mind at the moment
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Carlilse

A taxi driver went to court – to ask to be banned from driving.

Peter Chambers, 33, of Trumpet Terrace, Cleator, had had eight penalty points put on his licence after being found guilty by local magistrates of careless driving.

The court heard how he had shouted and gestured at another taxi driver, before pulling out at speed then cutting in front of him, causing a crash.

Chambers took the case to an appeal hearing at Carlisle Crown Court, saying that a short driving ban would suit him better.

He said that, with the eight points added to three others he had been given a few days before for speeding, he might lose his taxi licence. But he said he believed that if he were disqualified from driving he would be left with a clean licence once the period of disqualification was over, so then he would have no problem being able to continue as a taxi driver.

The Crown Court judge, sitting with two independent magistrates, threw out the appeal, saying the lower court’s decision was “correct” for a piece of driving that “bordered upon dangerous”.

Prosecutor Gerard Rogerson told the court the case followed an incident in which Chambers had a row in which he shouted and made gestures at another taxi driver in Whitehaven town centre one afternoon last June.

A short time later he pulled out in front of the other driver “at real speed”, then pulled in sharply in front of him, causing a collision.

Chambers was originally charged with dangerous driving and failing to stop after an accident, but in December west Cumbrian magistrates found him not guilty of those offences but guilty of careless driving instead. He was fined £210, with £400 costs, and had eight points put on his licence.


At the appeal hearing he did not challenge the financial penalty, only the penalty points.