Man who terrified taxi driver with air rifle appears at Perth Sheriff Court

Nov 27 2009 by Alison Lowson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A TERRIFIED taxi driver drove off at speed after he was confronted by a man wielding an air rifle outside a house in the Carse of Gowrie.

Perth Sheriff Court was told that the driver had picked up a drunken passenger in Dundee shortly after 4am and took him to a house called The Potting Shed at Ballindean, Inchture.

But there was an argument over the fare.

Then 29-year-old businessman Darren Taylor emerged from the house and asked the passenger if he wanted him to get a gun.

He went inside and reappeared moments later, armed with the weapon.

“The taxi driver fairly quickly ended the argument with the other person and drove off at speed,” depute fiscal Robbie Brown told the court.

The incident was reported to the police and when officers interviewed the cabbie, he was in a “very distressed and scared state.”

The incident resulted in Taylor, of McPhail Street, Glasgow, being jailed for eight months.

He pled guilty to causing a breach of the peace in the quiet cul-de-sac on March 21 this year and placing the taxi driver in a state of fear and alarm.

Mr Brown said that the accused had been out with his friend who had been drinking to excess.

The accused drove to Inchture – there was no indication he had been drinking – and was in the house when the taxi drew up.

Solicitor Billy Sommerville described the incident as “a moment of madness.”

The accused didn’t think at the time that he was “doing anything wrong.”

When the situation was explained to him by the police he “felt terrible” about what had happened and wanted to apologise to the driver.

Imposing the jail term, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said it should have been “patently obvious” to the accused that he was committing a serious offence.

And the accused didn’t even have the consumption of alcohol to explain his actions.

“For this extremely serious offence, you will lose your liberty.”