A 27-year-old man from Bathford has been given a suspended prison sentence totalling 16 weeks after he admitted two offences of assaulting a taxi driver in a row over the fare and stealing a wallet.
Thomas Dymond, of Apple Gates Stables at Shockerwick Lane, appeared before District Judge Lynne Matthews, who was sitting at Bath Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 19th November.
Dymond admitted that on 11th April at Shockerwick Lane he had assaulted taxi driver Frederick Darko.
The court heard that Dymond, who had been drunk at the time, had struck the driver in the forehead and mouth.
The judge told Dymond, who has previous offences, that he chooses violence when things don’t go his way and that taxi drivers deserve the support of the courts.
Sentencing him to 12 weeks for the assault, the judge told Dymond he had been “really difficult” and the taxi driver must have dreaded what was about to happen.
She said the crime was so serious that only a custodial sentence could be justified, but she suspended it for 12 months because there had been a passing of time since Dymond’s previous offence and a prospect of rehabilitation.
Dymond was ordered to complete up to seven rehabilitation activity days and do 80 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay the taxi driver £300 in compensation.
For stealing a wallet and its contents of a value unknown belonging to Joshua Baker on the same date, Dymond was given a four-week suspended sentence, to run consecutively.
