A taxi driver’s life was ruined after he was robbed at knifepoint by a night-time passenger.
Karl Andrew Barnes was jailed for more than four years after he heard how his crime affected its vulnerable victim.
The cabbie said it left him a “changed person”, so scared he had to give up his livelihood.
The dad’s wife wants the family to leave the UK because she no longer feels safe.
Barnes, 23, grabbed his keys, turned off his car’s ignition and said: “Give me the money.”
He held a knife to the taxi driver’s chest, Teesside Crown Court heard today.
The drunken passenger was picked up from Dovecot Street, central Stockton on January 30.
He asked the driver to stop on Coulthard Court, South Bank then emerged from a home and came to the driver’s window.
The taxi driver thought he’d be paid as he wound his window down, said prosecutor Peter Sabiston.
Instead Barnes demanded his cash and his phone and spouted racial abuse at him.
He robbed the driver of £130 and the phone before he ran off at about 12.40am.
He’d fetched the knife from an acquaintance’s home on that street, the court was told.
Mr Sabiston said Barnes targeted a vulnerable victim and there was some planning, though only for a few minutes.
The taxi driver said he struggled for weeks to leave his home and was “terrified” to go back to work.
After three weeks he had to give up the job which supported his wife and daughter.
“I was simply scared, scared of going out, scared of going out at night, scared of picking up fares,” he said in a statement.
“If I picked up some youngsters it would be enough for me to fear for my safety. I simply couldn’t cope.”
He said the robbery affected his confidence and his family, costing him his source of income.
“I worked all the hours I could. This has all been taken away,” he added.
He said his wife now wanted to uproot the family and return to Romania.
“This incident has ruined him, destroyed his life,” said Mr Sabiston.
Barnes, of Upper Princess Street, South Bank, initially denied the robbery to police, claiming he was asleep with his girlfriend in Eston at the time.
He later admitted robbery and having a bladed article.
He had a criminal record since the age of 13 with 45 convictions starting with theft and home burglary.
When he was just 15 he was in court for having a small axe in a public place.
He was sent to detention at 16 for using a knife to threaten staff and steal a mini-motorbike from a shop in 2007.
He was locked up for three years for robbing two boys of their bicycles in 2010.
Zoe Passfield, defending, said Barnes called the taxi just wanting to get home under the influence of drink and drugs.
He tried and failed to get money to pay the fare, panicked and got the knife on “impulse”.
She said: “Even he is at a loss to explain why he did that, or why he then committed the robbery.
“No injury was caused.”
She added he was struggling with drink and drug use, anxiety and depression at the time and had a long-standing drug problem.
He showed remorse, considered the impact on the taxi driver and was quoted as saying: “I simply wish it hadn’t happened. I really feel for him now.”
The judge, Recorder Mark McKone, contrasted Barnes with the hard-working taxi driver, described as a vulnerable public servant.
He told Barnes: “You have never worked. You’ve funded your lifestyle including drinking and drug-taking by stealing.
“This is the third time you’ve been before the courts for robbery. Your last sentence of three years didn’t deter you.”
He jailed Barnes for four years and three months, adding: “You’re wasting your life in prison.”
Noting the qualifications Barnes had gained inside, he warned him he’d face an extended sentence if he robbed again.
