Vicious attacks on taxi and Uber drivers

A 26-year-old Marlborough man failed to front up in court on Monday after being charged with allegedly punching a taxi driver and an Uber driver multiple times, hurling racial abuse at one and threatening to beat and shoot him.

Queenstown Police Constable Amanda Shute says the first alleged assault occurred at 4.50am on Saturday (14 December) when the taxi driver refused to overload the taxi with six passengers.

“The male began making racist comments towards the driver and said he would beat and shoot the driver,” she says.

The driver then stopped the taxi on the side of the road and asked the passengers to get out. “The offender has then gone to the driver’s door and punched the driver in the nose and right side of the face. The offender then ran off and ordered an Uber shortly after,” Shute says.

“While in the Uber he began bragging about what he’d done.” The driver asked him not to talk the way that he was which led to the offender then focusing his abuse on the new driver, who pulled over and cancelled the trip.

“The offender then got out of the vehicle, opened the driver’s door and punched the Uber driver four or five times in the face, then kicked him four to five times in the hip,” Shute says.

The Marlborough man was arrested and faces two charges of speaking threateningly and two charges of assault. He failed to appear in the Queenstown District Court on Monday, but Police do not require help to locate him.