A knifepoint robber who threatened to stab a taxi driver in his cab has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.
Simon Robert Toussaint (49) was convicted by a jury yesterday afternoon of robbing the driver, who was described as "vulnerable" by the judge.
Toussaint took the cab to collect a wrap of cocaine from a dealer and never intended paying the fare.
He denied robbery, but admitted making off without paying the £24 fare, in the early hours of December 7.
Sentencing him at Leicester Crown Court, Judge Philip Head said: "You went on a drug-buying expedition by taxi.
"At the end of the journey, you produced a knife in order to obtain £20 from the driver. I take the view it was pre-planned because you had a knife.
"He was a vulnerable victim. Taxi drivers are especially at risk of this sort of targeting."
The jury of seven men and five women took three hours and 27 minutes to deliberate, before finding him guilty on a majority 10-2 verdict.
During the trial, the driver of the black cab said he felt "scared" when the defendant produced the knife, pushing it through a small gap in the Perspex partition between them.
He said he picked up the defendant, accompanied by a woman, in Shearer Close, Rushey Mead, Leicester.
He drove to Bonney Road, New Parks, where the defendant got out and met another man, who handed him something in a white paper wrap.
Toussaint got back in and the driver returned to Shearer Close.
The victim told the court the woman companion got out of the car, saying she was going to fetch the money from indoors.
He said the defendant, still in the cab, announced he only had a £50 note and asked for the change to be handed over first.
The victim said: "I took £20 out to give him as change.
"I turned my neck to the left and saw a knife.
"He had put it though a very small hole, where the seatbelt fits, through the screen.
"It was an inch wide and he'd pushed it four inches through the hole. I was scared."
He said after handing over the cash, Toussaint demanded more, telling him "I'll stab you if you don't pay the money".
The driver watched which house the defendant went into and called the police.
In his evidence, Toussaint said the driver invented an account of being robbed at knifepoint to ensure the police responded to him making off without paying.
Barry White, mitigating, said after the verdict: "The defendant's position remains the same and he states he didn't have a knife.
"No force was used and, on the jury's verdict, it would have been unlikely any would have been used given the confined space.
"He has a long-term partner as well as two adult sons he's very close to."
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