Woman convicted of racist assault on taxi driver

The Chester Standard reports on the guilty verdict passed on a woman standing trial for assaulting a taxi driver.

Patricia Young, 43, was found guilty  of racially aggravated assault against KingKabs driver Muhammad Iqbal at Chester Magistrates Court.

The court heard Mr Iqbal picked up four people, three women and one man, from St Theresa’s Social Club on Blacon Avenue and drove them to Worcester Square where two of the women and the man got out of the taxi. Ms Young remained in the car to be driven to her home.

Mr Iqbal told the court the group paid a total of £8, which included the fare for taking Ms Young to her home address.

But Mr Iqbal said, once he set off again with Young, she called him “miserable” and used a racist term, before telling him to “go back to your country”.

Mr Iqbal pulled over and called the police. The recording of Mr Iqbal’s emergency call was played to the court. On it, Young can be heard calling Mr Iqbal various insulting names but no racial abuse was heard on the call.

While on the phone to the police, Mr Iqbal told them he was going to drive Young to Blacon Police Station and during the journey Young attacked him.

Mr Iqbal said Young punched him “three or four times to the neck” while he was driving. On the 999 call, Mr Iqbal could be heard saying “don’t punch me”.

Young was dropped off by Blacon Police Station, and was stopped and arrested by police as she started to walk back towards her home.

When being questioned by officers Young denied being racially abusive towards Mr Iqbal but then made an insulting reference to his background and said he should “go back to his country”.

In court, Young  repeated her denials and said that a dispute broke out after Mr Iqbal “demanded more money”.

She admitted making the remarks to the police which she said were racist, but claimed she was “totally wound up then” and wouldn’t otherwise have made such remarks.

Magistrates found Young guilty of racially aggravated assault. She will return to court on 4 November for sentencing following an adjournment for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.