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Man who attacked cabbie has sentence halved
A MAN who assaulted a taxi driver after a row in his cab has had his jail sentence almost halved on appeal by top judges.
Steven Gunn, 42, of The Birches, Three Bridges, Crawley, grappled with driver Mohammed Azzaoui in his car after a night out in April 2006 ended with tempers flaring.
Gunn was jailed for nine months after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm at Brighton Crown Court on May 8 this year.
Today that was cut to five months after Mr Justice Andrew Smith, sitting with Judge Gabriel Moss QC at London's Criminal Appeal Court, said he appeared to have been wrongly sentenced on the basis that he had thrown a flurry of punches at the cabbie.
The court heard that Gunn and two others were in the cab when trouble started and Gunn pushed the cabbie after Mr Azzaoui asked them to get out.
The cabbie claimed he had been punched several times by Gunn and, although that was never proved, Gunn appeared to have been sentenced on that basis, said Mr Justice Smith.
Allowing the appeal, the judge added: "The aggravating features are that there were three passengers in the car and that taxi drivers are vulnerable to these kind of attacks.
"The danger of assaulting a driver whilst he is driving also aggravates the offence.
"But the judge appears to have sentenced him on the basis that he punched the taxi driver several times.
"We consider that a custodial sentence is right in principle, but it should be reduced to one of five months," the judge concluded.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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