Suspended jail term for taxi driver who lied about attack

Gian, also known as John, Chambers, 48, of Le Jardinet, La Rue des Frenes, St Martin’s, had denied maliciously wounding the passenger and then attempting to pervert the course of justice, but was found guilty at trial in the Magistrate’s Court.

He was sentenced to suspended sentences of four months in prison for wounding and one month in prison, consecutive, for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Judge Cherry McMillen said she accepted that the male passenger had damaged the wing mirror of the taxi after he got into an argument with Chambers at the Weighbridge rank at about 5.30pm.

Chambers then got a weapon out of the car and struck the man twice in the head, leaving him with cuts to his temple and chin.

The defendant then called the police, but did not mention hitting the passenger. It only came to light when the CCTV was viewed.

Defence advocate Samantha Maindonald said her client had been a taxi driver for eight years and he had the right to go about his work without fear of violence. Following the incident, Chambers’ taxi licence was part-suspended, meaning he could not work after 6.30pm.

Chambers had three previous violent offences on his record.

Judge McMillen said the latest charges were serious matters. She praised Chambers for going to work on Christmas Day and providing a service, and noted that the passenger had ‘deliberately and wilfully’ damaged the taxi.

However Chambers had then ‘whacked’ the man twice with a weapon, which might have been a torch.

‘It was that excess force that led to the injuries,’ she said.

‘You knew immediately you had stepped over the line and you did your best to direct all the attention to the passenger. It was a shocking show of force.’

Judge McMillen also noted that the police had searched the taxi and not found a weapon, meaning that Chambers had got rid of it deliberately.

‘They would have found it, if it had been there,’ she said.

She said the sentence had to send a strong message.

‘You cannot behave in the manner you did that night,’ she said. ‘That was not acceptable.’