Two jailed for vicious attack on taxi driver

TWO thugs who viciously attacked and robbed a taxi driver after a night on the town have been given lengthy jail sentences.

Their victim, 70-year old Francis McBride was left with a bruised and beaten face when he was violently assaulted after he drove the pair from Rochdale to Oldham where both lived.

The driver who had agreed to take them despite their being drunk and unable to pay his full fare, told a trial jury he thought he was going to die.

Michael Edhouse (25) was jailed for six years, and Daniel Swaincott (26) for five and a half years after being found guilty of robbery.

The jury at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told that the attack happened the minute the car stopped on Lichens Crescent, Fitton Hill — almost outside Swaincott’s own address.

Edhouse who was in the back of the Toyota Avensis car leaned forward and grabbed the 70-year old in a tight stranglehold, while Swaincott, in the front passenger seat, punched him repeatedly in the face, continuing even after he had given them his cash.

Mr Paul Hodgkinson, prosecuting, said Swaincott had battered the driver over, and over again.

Both men then fled with his takings of around £300 in a drawstring bag and an electronic taxi meter worth £400.

The jury was told that both men were captured on CCTV getting into the taxi at The Harrows pub on Oldham Road, Rochdale, at around 1.30am on May 29, and were seen by an eye witness getting out on Lichens Crescent.

Both denied being involved in the robbery, and later invented an “absurd and ludicrous” story about a third party they knew and were afraid of, being responsible, in a bid to get away with it.

Mr Hodgkinson told the jury the two men knew they had been nailed, and their only option had been to invent a “pack of lies” in the desperate hope of being believed.

They were arrested later on the day of the robbery after a girl friend they had been drinking with during the previous night told police they would be back in Rochdale for her 21st birthday party at The Eagle pub on Bolton Road, where she worked as a barmaid.

Matched

When arrested Edhouse was carrying a drawstring bag which contained loose change and clear plastic bank-style money bags, which matched the description of items taken in the robbery.

Edhouse of Barmouth Court, Oldham and Swaincott of Lichens Crescent had both pleaded not guilty to robbery.