Rip-off taxi passenger propositioned cabbie for sex

Chesterfield magistrates’ court heard on Tuesday, February 28, how Julian Gareth Ord, 27, of Harehill Crescent, Wingerworth, had caught the taxi in Chesterfield following a night out watching rugby.

Prosecuting solicitor Becky Allsop said the taxi driver picked up the defendant just before 7am and he sat in the passenger seat of the vehicle and was twice taken to cash machines before the driver was propositioned and she drove him to her control office.

Mrs Allsop said: “He had said, ‘I want a woman and if I give you cash will you have sex with me?’, and she said no.”

The taxi driver said he should go home, according to Mrs Allsop, but he added that he wanted a Thai woman and she said no.

Mrs Allsop added that the defendant also asked to be taken to a cash machine for a third time but she told him she was going to drive him to the taxi control office.

The court heard how the defendant revealed he had no money to pay the £20.70 fare and he began to say unpleasant things to the driver.

The taxi driver said she had been left very upset and scared after the ordeal and the incident had wasted her time and prevented her from continuing to work and make money.

Ord told police he had been watching the rugby and described himself as over ten-out-of-ten on a drunken scale.

The defendant accepted the case against him and that he had acted out of character and was hazy on the details because he had been drunk.

He pleaded guilty to making off without paying for a taxi fare after the incident on February 12.

Magistrates described the case as “disturbing” and ensured Ord paid a heavy price for the offence.

He was fined £457 and was ordered to pay £300 compensation, a £45 victim surcharge and £85 costs.