A MAN HAS avoided jail for an assault on a taxi driver which left the victim with a broken nose.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Roberts Augstkalms (25) was drunk when he began punching the driver after he asked him to pay a fare of €6.40.

Augstkalms of Brian Road, Marino, Dublin pleaded guilty to assault causing harm at Fairview Avenue Lower on December 31, 2015.

Garda Elaine Glynn told Tony McGillicuddy BL, prosecuting, that the victim was waiting on a Hailo passenger to arrive when he saw the accused who was “quite drunk”.

The passenger who ordered over Hailo failed to show up and the victim decided to pick up the accused.

Augstkalms was talking and cursing to himself inside the car and became aggressive.

The driver drove to Fairview and stopped there. He asked Augstkalms for the fare but Augstkalms said he had no money and claimed he had been “fucked over” earlier.

He was refusing to pay the fare. The driver suggested Augstkalms could pay the fare over the Hailo app but Augstkalms refused and called the driver “a fucking robber”.

The man told him to get out of the taxi. Augstkalms got out and pulled the driver out and began punching him in the face, the court heard.

The victim was very frightened and began screaming, Garda Glynn said. A group of young people nearby shouted at Augstkalms to stop and one man came over and pulled him off the victim.

Broken nose 

The victim’s nose was broken in the attack and he also suffered a cut over his eye.

When gardaí arrived they found the victim on the ground.

Augstkalms became aggressive and violent and started lashing his arms and legs out at gardaí and telling them to “fuck off”.

He later accepted he had hit the driver and that he had put him in fear of his life.

Judge Melanie Greally noted that Augstkalms has handed in a sum of €2,000 as a token of remorse.

She accepted that he engaged well with the Probation Service, had not come to Garda attention since and has no previous convictions.

The judge ordered that Augstkalms carry out 240 hours community service within 12 months in lieu of a one year jail sentence.

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