Sushil Kumar Pathania has lost his job as a cab driver following an incident in July that left a woman passenger weeping in his taxi.
The Southport Magistrates Court heard Pathania forgot to turn on the fare meter of his taxi when he picked up the 26-year-old woman passenger on the Gold Coast on July 23.
When he realised this while driving on a motorway, he offered to charge the woman $50-fare. However, the woman refused and asked to be let out of the cab.
The police prosecutor told the court that Pathania declined to drop the woman because they were in the middle of nowhere and offered to take her back to the Griffith University where he had her picked up from.
During the argument, the woman passenger began filming Pathania on her phone and the driver then pushed his hand back to move the camera, striking the woman’s wrist.
The police prosecutor said the woman was not hurt but Pathania’s actions
The defence lawyer said Pathania did not intend to hit the woman. “The camera comes back into his face and that must have been very distracting while he was driving,” News Corp quoted her as saying.
The phone video recorded Pathania doing 129 km/h, 19km over the speed limit.
Pathania appeared in the court on the charges of common assault and disobeying speed limit.
Magistrate Mark Howden sentenced him to a three-month good behaviour order for the assault and a $250 fine for speeding. No conviction was recorded.
The cab company that employed Pathania suspended him after the incident in July and he has not been reinstated.
