Woman robbed after taking fake taxi

A maintenance personnel who works at the Elletson Road Police Station was hauled before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Friday on allegations that he posed as a taxi operator, then held up and robbed an unsuspecting woman.

Oneil Garcia pleaded not guilty to the charge of larceny from the person.

The court heard that on December 27, the complainant boarded a robot taxi at a gas station in downtown Kingston, after the driver indicated that he was heading to Harbour View.

Upon reaching an area near the Rockfort Mineral Bath, the driver allegedly stopped the car suddenly, then grabbed the complainant's chest, and held on to her bag saying, "Gimme this!"

Left her stranded

He then left her stranded along the roadside.

On February 25 this year, the complainant then spotted a man at the same gas station, driving the same car, and reported the matter to the police, who then arrested and charged him.

When cautioned about the offence, Garcia told the police, "I was in St Mary at that time with my friend and my woman."

When the presiding judge Andrea Collins asked the complainant how she knew Garcia was the same man that robbed her, she told the court that he admitted it to her.

"I was standing at the same gas station and I saw him in a car, so I said it back to him that he was the same man that robbed me and him did a [hesitate], then me say, 'You a ole thief!', and then him say, 'Yes'," the complainant said.

Upon learning that the 'taxi' in question was a robot taxi, Judge Collins then said, "That's the reason you don't take those [robot taxis] to begin with."

She then set a mention date of April 25, for the matter to be mentioned again as a statement is outstanding.