07/12/2012

15 Years For Cab Driver Who Used Taxi 'As A Weapon'

A taxi driver has been jailed for 15 years for using his black cab "like a bowling ball" to run down a group of men.

28-year-old Majid Rehman, of Grangetown, Cardiff, deliberately used his taxi to run over six rail workers and two other pedestrians on a pavement after a row at a taxi rank.

He was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent and attempted GBH.

The court heard how Rehman was on the taxi rank outside Cardiff Central train station on 27 March this year when a row flared with the railway workers.

Eventually the group of men left the station but Rehman remained angry.

He left the rank in his car, and even drove through a red light according to a witness, his cab then ploughed into the six men and two innocent passers-by, Mark Underwood and Richard Partridge in front of the Millennium Stadium.

The court was told Mr Underwood was trapped under the taxi and suffered significant burns to his back, legs and arms as he was wedged under the hot engine.

Rehman claimed he acted in self-defence because the men assaulted him.

In sentencing, the judge told Rehman said: "You used a vehicle as a weapon to attack other people.

"If a minor incident of a punch and some abuse is met with this kind of reaction then society is going to be reduced to ruin.

"This was an extremely serious crime which you committed in anger following what was a modest dispute between you and a group of men returning home from work on the railways.

"One of those men punched you once to the chest. It was by no means a devastating blow."

Rehman was jailed for 15 years for GBH with intent and 12 years for attempted GBH.

He was also sentenced to 16 months for dangerous driving. All sentences are to run concurrently.

Rehman was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.

(H)


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