A MAN and woman from Swindon who beat up a taxi driver in the early hours of the morning just after Christmas last year have been told by a judge to completely change their ways.

Jordan Akbar Lane, 22, of Castleton, Road, Middleleaze and Lucy Loren Dullea, 21, of Okus Road, appeared together in front of District Judge Simon Cooper at Swindon Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Both pleaded guilty to assaulting a taxi driver at Shaw village centre on December 27, 2016.

Pauline Lambert, prosecuting, told the judge that the driver was called to pick up from Randsom Close at 4.15am. Lane and Dullea got into the taxi and asked him to drive to the town centre.

On arrival the couple said they had no money so he drove them to a cash point in Shaw village.

Lane started swearing and shouting that he did not want to withdraw money.

After an argument, pushing and shoving, the driver and Lane fell to the floor when Dullea hit the taxi driver seven or eight times in the face, Ms Lambert said.

Lane then landed around 15 punches on the driver’s face. His head was swollen and he had injuries to his neck and ear. An ambulance was called and he was taken to hospital for an x-ray.

In a full statement to police the driver said his whole face was still hurting two weeks after the incident, which lasted about 20 minutes, and his family did not want him to work at night any more.

Defending, Gordon Hotson said the taxi had been called by someone else, not Lane and Dullea and Lane had become annoyed because the driver had parked quite a way from the cash point.

He added that Lane had completed 150 hours of unpaid work and the vast majority of the rehabilitation activity days from a previous sentence.

The judge told Lane and Dullea: “This was an unprovoked attack on the taxi driver that has put him off night work. The CCTV footage shows you punching him a considerable number of times.”

He pointed out that Lane had seven previous convictions for nine offences of violence. “You need to completely change your ways,” he told the couple.

Lane was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 18 hours at an attendance centre.

Dullea was sentenced to a six-week curfew from 8pm to 6am seven days a week with electronic tagging.

Each was ordered to pay £100 compensation to the driver plus £85 court costs and £85 victim surcharge.