A TAXI driver robbed a passenger and broke his collar bone with a sweeping brush and a children’s toy trailer in a dispute over a €15 fare, a court has heard.
At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, passenger Michael L’Estrange alleged a taxi driver had assaulted him and robbed him of €70 after they had a dispute over a €15 fare in Ennis on April 25th, 2010. In the case, taxi driver Okechukwu Utuke (44), of Dún na hInse, Ennis, denies assault causing harm and robbery of Mr L’Estrange.
On the first day of the case, Mr L’Estrange said in evidence that he had been out in Ennis with friends and had drunk four to five pints. He said he was walking home when he hailed a taxi at the Country Pine store on Ennis’s Tulla Road to bring him home to the Gort na mBláth housing estate, farther out the Tulla Road, in the early hours of April 25th.
Mr L’Estrange said the fare from Ennis town centre to his home at Gort na mBláth was usually €7.50, but the driver demanded €15 for the fare.
He told the court: “I told him ‘No’. I wasn’t paying that, and I threw €10 down on the front passenger seat and got out of the car.”
Mr L’Estrange said he did not know whether there was a taxi-meter, on or off.
Elaine Shanahan, an eye witness, said she saw a taxi driver strike Mr L’Estrange with a sweeping brush and a toy trailer from a neighbour’s garden.
Mr L’Estrange said the taxi driver reached into the left-hand pocket of his jeans and took €70 from him before leaving.
Counsel for Mr Utuke, Lorcan Connolly, said Mr Utuke had paid two visits to the Gort na mBláth estate on the night, and in one case a passenger had “legged it” without paying the fare.
Mr Connolly said to Mr L’Estrange: “Mr Utuke doesn’t know anything about events that you allege about a physical altercation and robbery.”
The case continues today.