Drink driver crashed into taxi after row

Self-employed plasterer Lee Anthony Barrett (30) didn’t injure her, but ended up leaving the cabbie, whose vehicle was damaged, scared, shocked and needing a lie-down, after the incident on January 29th.

Burnley magistrates were told how Barrett was already at his girlfriend’s home when she had arrived and, concerned, she had got back in her taxi and asked the driver to take her somewhere else.

Barrett had hit the back of the Vauxhall Vectra, struck the vehicle twice more after the airbag was inflated, then drove off.

Barrett, of Stroyan Street, Burnley, admitted driving with excess alcohol and failing to report an accident on Harold Avenue in the town. He was given a 12-month community order, with 100 hours unpaid work and must pay £85 costs and an £85 victim surcharge. He was banned for a year.

Mr Andrew Robinson (prosecuting) said Barrett and his on/off partner had argued outside the taxi office on Yorkshire Street. She decided to go home, he had already driven there and he ran into the cab. The defendant blew 54 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Mr Nick Cassidy (defending) said: “He accepts full culpability. He accepts the blame lies at his door. He tells me the loss of his driving licence will have severe consequences for him.”