Taxi driver in knife threat

A Dublin man who robbed a 62-year-old taxi driver after holding what the victim thought was a blade to his throat has been jailed for three years.

Garda Pamela Dunne said that Christopher Maughan, 22, pulled the taxi driver’s head back and threatened to cut his throat after being dropped to his destination at a Ballymun halting site.

Maughan’s friend got out of the passenger seat and walked around the car to take the keys from the ignition. The driver was then ordered to walk towards fields across from the halting site, while the two young men sped off in his car.

Maughan, of St Margaret’s Park, Ballymun, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbing cash and a phone at St Margaret’s Park, Ballymun, in the early hours of October 14, 2014. He has 33 previous convictions, including robberies, possession of knives and assaults.

Gda Dunne told Fiona Murphy BL, prosecuting, that the victim took a cab to a Garda station after a halting site resident gave him a phone on which to report the crime.

Gardaí soon found the vehicle undamaged near where it was taken, but without its taxi plate.

The driver’s €35 cash float, phone, driving licence, and tax clearance certificates, as well as car keys belonging to his wife, were also missing.

Gda Dunne said the taxi driver identified the culprits, who had been stopped by colleagues a short distance from the vehicle.

Judge Nolan took into account Maughan’s early guilty plea but said his record of conviction “allows no great mitigation”.