Get used to life being different!
What JP told crying businessman as she jailed him for street attack
A SOBBING company director was told ‘get used to life being different’ as he was jailed for kicking a taxi driver in the head outside a nightclub.
Robert Croucher, 35, begged to be spared a prison sentence saying: ‘This will destroy my life, I am the director of a company, and everyone would lose their jobs. We have 1,000 clients, we have staff all around the country, and it would die.’
But magistrate Sandra Blandford was unimpressed and snapped: ‘Your behaviour was unacceptable. We find that you did kick Mohammad Hussain a number of times while he was on the floor, and one of those kicks was to the head.’
She added: ‘You’ll just have to get used to life being different.’
Croucher, who is the director of a management consultancy, was jailed for 20 weeks, by Hammersmith magistrates in West London.
The court heard that he had been to Raffles, a private members’ club on King’s Road in Chelsea, with partner Brigitte Kudor.
Croucher attacked Mr Hussain when he refused to drive them home in his taxi, which had been booked using the Uber app.
Raffles, founded in 1967, has been visited by members of the Royal Family including the Queen, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. It accepts members on a referral only basis.
Mr Hussain said: ‘A lady got into the cab, a man threw his bag in. I refused because I got scared because the gentleman suddenly got angry. Something happened between them and he harshly slammed the door. I got out to open the door, and then the gentleman took the keys from through the window.
‘He then slapped me. I was begging for my keys and he suddenly pushed me on the pavement.
‘He has just kicked me in several parts of my body and head. My head was very swollen, I went to hospital where I stayed for four hours ... It was severe pain.’
Magistrates were shown footage of the incident recorded by a member of staff at Raffles, where Croucher is seen slapping Mr Hussain, insulting members of staff and then throwing the driver’s keys down the street.
Kristoff Kwiecien, one of the club doormen who helped restrain Croucher, told magistrates he had held him down because the kicking was ‘too much’.
He said: ‘Mr Croucher put him on the floor and kicked him in the head. It was three to five times. The first kick was loud, like a clap.’
Mr Kwiecien said Croucher had a conversation with the doormen before the incident, and had threatened to have them fired.
‘He was very rude,’ he said. ‘He said he had built four flats in Mayfair, and I could lose my job tomorrow.’
Croucher insisted he only slapped the driver but the magistrates found he had kicked him in the head.
Mrs Blandford told weeping Croucher: ‘The CCTV evidence was compelling. We saw the slap, and the security guards saying, “Call the police”. We saw the urgency in which they ran over shouting, “No need to kick him in the head”.’
She added: ‘Only a custodial sentence can be justified.’
Croucher, of Hornsey, north London, admitted assault by beating, but denied kicking Mr Hussain. The businessman was also ordered to pay £500 in compensation to Mr Hussain.
‘The first kick was loud, like a clap’