Finsbury woman attacked taxi driver when he didn’t pick her up

A City worker who punched a taxi driver in the face when he refused to take her home from a night out, walked free from court last Thursday.

Yasmin Ellacot, 20, of Margery Street, Finsbury, attacked Abdur Kamalee as he dropped off a passenger at a taxi rank outside Liverpool Street Station in the early hours of February 12 last year.

She believed the black cab’s ‘for hire’ light was on and became enraged when she found the driver still had passengers waiting to continue their journey.

Ellacot, who had been out drinking with a group of friends in the City, threw a plastic water bottle into the car before punching Mr Kamalee in the face through his window.

She struck him with her gold ring, splitting his lip and leaving him in need of six stitches.

Her friends then set upon the car, throwing a black bin liner at it and shaking the vehicle until one of the wing mirrors came loose.

Ellacot, who is expecting her first child in October, admitted a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm at the Old Bailey and was handed an eight-month prison term, suspended for a year.

She was ordered to pay �250 compensation plus �50 court costs.

She will also be subject to a nightly 8pm to 7am curfew for the next three months.

Prosecutor Gavin Ludlow-Thompson said: “He [Mr Kamalee] felt extremely intimidated, in fear for his life.”

He added that he lost three days’ employment as a result of the attack.

Sentencing, Judge Peter Rook QC said: “You must appreciate he was a person performing a public duty who was vulnerable there, sitting in the driver’s seat of his cab in the early hours of the morning.”

Ellacot, who has no previous convictions, lost her job as a consequence of the charge.