Taxi driver attacker dodges jail

A teenage thug has been spared jail for carrying out a savage attack on a taxi driver - just days after being released from another sentence.

Martin McAdam, flanked by two pals, threatened to kill cabbie Abdul Ahmed Bibi, repeatedly headbutted him and robbed him of £60 in cash.

McAdam, 18, had opened the front passenger door and got into Mr Bibi’s vehicle while he waited on his next hire in Renfrew and asked to be taken to Paisley.

But the private hire driver told McAdam he was unable to pick hires up off the street and could only take passengers if he’d been pre-booked.

McAdam began shouting:“Where is the money? Give me money or I’ll kill you”, before launching into his attack.

He headbutted his victim on the shoulder and head as he rifled through the centre console of the vehicle, trying to find cash.

Mr Bibi noticed that McAdam had blood on his hands and face and placed his hands onto his attacker’s hands in a bid to stop him from getting his money.

But McAdam and his friends, one of whom was keeping lookout, fled the scene with the cash, which he’d pulled from cup holders in the car.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard on Thursday that he was snared after officers were able to identify him from DNA because Mr Bibi had got McAdam’s blood on his hands.

McAdam - who was locked up earlier this month, on the day he turned 18, for other offences - had admitted his guilt over the taxi assault previously.

He returned to the dock to learn his fate over the attack, which took place in the early hours of October 25 last year.

Defence solicitor Tony Callahan told the court that McAdam had served his previous sentences in residential custodial settings, like Kibble in Paisley.

And he said that being sent to Polmont Young Offenders Institution had been a wake up call - and an experience he did not wish to have to repeat.

Sheriff Colin Pettigrew blasted him for the offence, but gave him the chance to turn his life around once he is released from prison.

As he placed him on a Community Payback Order, which will begin when his current jail terms come to an end, the judge said:“You were released from an earlier sentence.

“Nine days later, you’re involved in this hideous crime of assault and robbery on a taxi driver.”

He pointed out that McAdam had been ordered to serve the remainder of a previous sentence he’d been released early from, and had been jailed earlier this month, on his 18th birthday, over another case.

He added:“’Why should I place any trust in you whatsoever, that you’ll now comply with anything other than another period in custody?’, is the question I have to ask myself.

“Sentencing a young man, which you are, is not an easy thing to do - particularly when I believe in the principle of rehabilitation.

“I’m going to give you one last chance to prove me wrong.

“The door to Polmont is very much ajar.”

He placed McAdam on a Community Payback Order which will see him supervised by social workers for two years and having to attend drug and alcohol counselling when requested.

He was also given 12 months to carry out 300 hours’unpaid work, which is the maximum available, and was told the discount he was given for pleading guilty was not being given another custodial sentence.