Accountant dodging taxi fare dies in 70ft cliff fall

A YOUNG accountant fell down a 70ft cliff to his death when he ran from a taxi to avoid paying the fare.

Graduate Jacob Phillips, 23, plunged down the cliff when he leapt over a fence in the dark.

Mr Phillips had caught the cab home after a night out with friends in December – but didn’t have enough cash to pay for it. An inquest heard he ran from the driver, who gave chase at the seaside town of Penarth, South Wales.

Cabbie Dave Sidaway told the inquest: ‘I stopped because I couldn’t see where I was going. I had no idea how much danger he was in.’

The university graduate had been out drinking in Cardiff before catching a taxi with friends Padraig Crowley and Rory Robinson.

Cardiff Coroner’s Court heard how the trio got out of the taxi to ‘use an ATM’ before making a run for it.

‘The plan was to go to Penarth but we did not have enough money for the taxi – I ran off in one direction, Jacob went in another direction,’ Mr Robinson told the inquest. ‘Running away from the taxi was a stupid thing to do.’

Mr Phillips, of Reading, Berks, was discovered the next day on the rocky beach by a dog walker.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Andrew Barkley said: ‘It is likely that he became disorientated and there is no evidence that he knew where he was at the time.

‘There is no way he could have known the danger that lay in front of him. The following day with the benefit of light it was clear the danger he faced by the sheer drop off the cliff just yards beyond the fence.’

Mr Phillips worked for Pretty Green, the clothing label run by Oasis star Liam Gallagher.

He had grown up in Barry, South Wales, before studying accountancy at the University of Birmingham.

The inquest heard that he had returned to Wales for Christmas and had been staying with his mother in the upmarket Cowbridge area.

Mr Phillips had planned to stay at a friend’s house but he and his friends didn’t have enough money to complete the journey, so decided to trick the driver by ‘dodging’ the fare.

Mr Phillips ran off into the ‘pitch black’ and fell down a cliff at the end of the disused Northern Promenade – also called The Dardanelles.

‘He became disorientated’