A SOUTHAMPTON cabbie has spoken of his shocking ordeal after a group of students smashed up his car in a late-night attack.

The driver said his Hackney cab was attacked by a group of students, including a young woman who climbed onto his bonnet and broke his windscreen with her high heels.

And he said the woman refused to get off the vehicle even after he started driving away and it was only when police arrived that she was forced off the bonnet.

The driver, who has been working in Southampton for nine years, said he had dropped off the students at a halls of residence in Duke Street, Southampton, and returned home when the young woman called him to say she had left her phone in the vehicle and insisted she needed it back that night.

He said he agreed to return it to her for a £10 fee but when he arrived back at Duke Street, at around 3am, on May 12, she refused to pay.

The driver, who has asked not be named, said: “I called the police and they told me to drive away and as I did that she moved in front of me and jumped on the bonnet. Then four or five others surrounded my car and as I stopped they started banging on the back and then one of them used a beer bottle to smash my back window.

“I was told to drive away so I did but she was still on the bonnet. Every time I stopped the other group came chasing up behind me like a lynch mob. But I kept stopping and this girl had plenty of opportunities to get off.

“I must have taken 15 minutes to drive to Civic Centre Hill, a journey that would take three or four minutes at normal speed, and she would not get off. She managed to manoeuvre her body over the windscreen and smashed it with her stilettos.

“By the time the police arrived and arrested her she was still on the bonnet.”

Daily Echo:

He added: “She was very aggressive and I was quite shocked. It’s not my fault she left her phone in my cab and when that happens we either hand it in somewhere or we can take it back if they pay a charge.

“This is what I get for going back out of courtesy and trying to do something nice in the middle of the night.”

The driver said he is unable to work until the vehicle is fixed and that he co-owns it with another driver so two people’s income is affected.

A spokesperson from Southampton Solent University confirmed that they were aware of an “incident” involving a taxi driver and one of their students, which is being investigated by Hampshire police.

They added: “All students are encouraged to be mindful of their personal safety and that of their belongings, as well as being vigilant about home security.”

Hampshire police were contacted but they were unable to provide a comment about the incident before publication.