Uber Driver in the UK has yet again faced an attack by passengers, and this time the attacker walks free. The man who broke down the window in the back of an Uber and then attacked the driver walked free from the court in Bristol, UK.
James Mallett, 35, let rip when Aleksander Bonchev was driving him to the Chasers nightclub in Bristol.
The driver, Bonchev found it ‘offensive’ and the court heard how it was the final straw for him who suffered abuse from drunken passengers and told to get out.
However, when Mallet started reigning blows, Bonchev knocked him down in self-defence. Mr Bonchev sustained minor injuries with a broken finger during the attack. This left him off-job and subsequently lost his job with Uber.
This job loss, further affected him financially, since he could not keep up with his car payments and rent, becoming homeless.
He had to return to his native Bulgaria. “All because he was doing his job that evening,” said the recorder, Miss Alexia Power.
The case against Mallett is not fresh. He was accused for similar attack on November 30 last year.
Miss Power during this attack handed him a six-month jail term suspended for 18 months and ordered him to pay £500 compensation, along with 120 hours’ unpaid work.
David Scutt, prosecuting, said Mr. Bonchev received a call to collect Mallett and three others and take them to Chasers.
However, when the driver ordered them to get out after Mallet farted; the passenger offered the driver a fight before punching him in the head.
Broke Wind
“He was spoken to; he was injured and had a cut to his bottom lip. He was plainly intoxicated.”
Mr Scutt told the court Mallett was abusive to cops and was “plainly intoxicated” then offered the driver a fight before punching. Mr Scutt added, “A young lady with Mr Mallett persuaded him to leave. They walked off towards Forest Road and police located him.”
However, Anthony Bignall, defending Mallet said, “He behaved in an unattractive manner that night.”
He further added that his client cared for a dependant relative, employed four people and was described as a ‘polite, helpful, well-behaved and courteous’ man.
Attacks on Drivers
Recent times, there has been a lot of driver attacks cases in UK coming to the light.
In the month of September, four passengers attacked Vaneet Singh, the Sikh taxi driver in his car as he was driving them back home from the casino.
Recounting his ordeal, Vaneet said, “the men slapped and shoved him as he drove along the A33 after collecting them from the Grosvenor Casino in Reading on Saturday night. One of the men tried to remove his turban and asked him: “Are you Taliban?”
Mr Singh, who lives in Tilehurst with his family, said he started working as a taxi driver because the coronavirus pandemic had stalled his job teaching music to children in Slough.
Mr Singh, said, the person sitting in the middle of the back of the car pulled his turban and slapped him on the head.
“It’s very bad experience. It’s my religion so I respect my turban,” he said.