Cabbie hospitalised and vehicle written off by racist thugs who told him to 'Go back to Pakistan
Three racist yobs left a cabbie hospitalised and trashed his vehicle until it was a write-off in a row over a fare. Shelby Marsh, Rebecca Unwin and Joshua Lovatt had been at a house party drinking heavily, before ordering the car from local Cheadle firm, Lucky Seven, to take them back to Stoke-on-Trent.
The driver asked them to pay for their trip at the start rather than at the end. Offended by his request, the three thugs racially abused and physically assaulted him.
The drunken trio also caused so much damage to the vehicle that it was written-off rather than fixed. Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard that the driver asked the three passengers to leave the vehicle after they disputed his request for pre-payment.
Prosecutor Richard McConaghy said: “Unwin did get out but the other two stayed.
"When they wouldn’t get out the driver said he would call the police and pointed out that there was a camera in the car. “At that point Marsh grabbed the camera and ripped it off, breaking it. "She punched him to the face with a clenched fist and his nose started to bleed. "Unwin then got back into the car and all three assaulted the driver. Some of the blows to the back of his head were from a bottle. “The bottle was then thrown to the front of the vehicle and Marsh picked it up and hit the complainant in the forehead with it.”
The court heard how the three thugs made racist comments to the victim, including one of them telling him to ‘Go back to Pakistan’. The victim got out of his car but was followed and attacked by the three defendants. As reported in the Birmingham Live, Mr McConaghy added: “All three defendants surrounded the driver and continued to punch him.
"Lovatt then kicked the wing mirror off the car and grabbed hold of the driver’s door and attempted to pull it off. "Unwin kicked the car before smashing a wheelie bin into the side of it.”
Neighbours who witnessed the attack called the police, but on arrival the three thugs had already returned back into the house. Police officers had to use PAVA spray to contain the defendants after they tried to evade arrest.
The incident, which took place on 11 June 2018, left the driver needing hospital treatment for injuries to his nose and forehead.
The victim's car was declared an 'economic write-off' after the damage was valued as too much of an expense to warrant repair. All three defendants pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage. Unwin, of Fenton, and Lovatt, of Leek, have no previous convictions while Marsh, of Fenton, has 11 convictions for offences.
Marsh's convictions include battery, criminal damage, assaulting a police officer and breaching an Asbo. Hamish Noble, representing Lovatt, said: “Mr Lovatt didn’t play a big part in the argument about the fare until later on and he was not the first to assault the complainant, although he did join in. "He’s genuinely sorry and disgusted by his behaviour.”
Representing Unwin and Marsh, Brian Williams, said Unwin was ‘normally a decent, honest young lady who acted out of character when drinking with others’.
Requests were made to hand suspended sentences to the defendants which were denied by Judge Paul Glenn. He sentenced Unwin and Lovatt to 23 months in prison. Marsh was jailed for 27 months. Addressing the court, Judge Paul Glenn, said: “This was appalling and shocking. "It was a sustained and repeated assault on a particularly vulnerable victim.”
Image: Source; Staffordshire Police
