August 09, 2011

Taxi driver's actions questioned by judge

By David Clarkson at the Rangiora Court House

The legality of a taxi driver?s actions in trying to deliver a non-paying customer to the police station has been questioned by a judge.

The woman customer?s violent reaction has led to a Christchurch District Court sentencing, but the taxi driver?s actions also drew comment from Judge Gary MacAskill.

The judge told the woman he was taking into account that ?there was some unlawful restraint on you?.

Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier had said she believed that the taxi driver was lawfully entitled to be paid and lawfully entitled to take the woman to the police station, but the judge disagreed.

?He has a right to complain to the police, and the right to sue, but he does not have the right to detain her unless he is exercising the citizen?s right to arrest,? said the judge. The driver had never said he was making an arrest.

The court was told the driver had not simply locked the doors and driven away, but had told the woman that he was taking her to the police station for payment of the $15 fare.

Before the court was Bianca May McNish, also known as Mataio, a 33-year-old unemployed woman who had admitted charges of intentionally injuring the taxi driver, possession of an offensive weapon, and unlawful possession of a prescription medicine and syringes.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Ayson Williams said McNish was found in a destroyed church in Madras Street on May 18, in an unco-operative and irrational state. Police found a container of tablets in her bag, and a syringe full of a light brown liquid. She said it was codeine which she was using because of an illness.

The taxi incident occurred in October 2009 when her bank card was declined for the fare. When the driver said he was taking her to the police station, she threw the eft-pos machine at him, striking him on the head, gauging him in the eye socket, and biting him on the hand.

The driver needed hospital attention and had to have three injections in case of hepatitis.

Defence counsel Grant Tyrrell suggested that McNish was a troubled woman who should be ordered to undergo psychological counselling and treatment as part of the sentence. He said the taxi driver's actions were an understandable reaction to not being paid but it was "technically a kidnapping".

McNish had told the pre-sentence report writer that she was ?too weak and paranoid to complete a community work sentence?.

Judge MacAskill said the violence she used against the taxi driver was completely unjustified. He imposed two years of intensive supervision with conditions that she undergo drug assessment and treatment as required, and psychological counselling and treatment.

He also ordered her to do 200 hours of community work and repay the taxi driver $165 for the unpaid fare and the medical treatment.