Jail for drink driver who brandished knife before stealing taxi and crashing it

A banned drink driver who stole a taxi and crashed it into railings has been jailed for 22 months.

Callum Heap, 20, lunged at cabbie Geofray Ezi with a knife before jumping in the front seat on November 15 last year.

Heap raced the taxi from Castlemilk and collided with a metal railing at Parkhead Forge retail park.

He was later found to be more than four times over the drink driving limit and had been disqualified from driving until 2022.

He pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to drink driving, dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.

Heap also admitted the assault on Mr Ezi, which was racially aggravated.

Heap was ordered to serve 470 days of an earlier sentence before beginning his latest jail term and disqualified from driving for 47 months.

The court heard Heap was told by Mr Ezi that he wasn’t allowed to enter the taxi with the bottle of alcohol he was carrying.

Heap stated he wanted Mr Ezi to take him to Pollok before calling him a racial slur.

Heap pulled out a“long-serrated knife” while sitting in the back of the taxi and lunged at Mr Ezi making stabbing motions.

Prosecutor John Bedford said:“Heap was observed climbing from the rear seat and entering the driver’s seat.

“He revved the engine and drove off from Ballantay Road at speed in a reckless manner, narrowly missing two people.”

Police later found the Volkswagen Passat taxi crashed against metal railings at the shopping complex.

Heap was spotted exiting the car while extremely drunk carrying a bottle of Buckfast.

He fled while stating“I don’t have a knife”and dropping a number of items.

Officers caught up with him and he was arrested and discovered to have an alcohol count of 97. The legal limit is 22.

Police are following a positive line of enquiry following a serious assault that took place in Rutherglen during the early hours of Sunday morning.

At around 4.20am, a 31-year-old man was inside a property on Slenavon Avenue, where he is accused of being in possession of weapons and of seriously assaulting a 32-year-old male and a 25-year-old female.

The householder is said to have retaliated, resulting in all three individuals sustaining significant injuries.

The incident is believed to have been a targeted attack.