West Pilton taxi hijacking: ‘This wasn’t just a stolen car, this was my life’, Edinburgh driver badly wounded after youths ambush car with stone-laced snowballs

A 39 year-old taxi driver thought he was ‘going to die’ after a group of male youths threw snowballs containing stones at him during a violent attack before hijacking his private hire Mercedes.

Police enquiries are ongoing to track down the attackers.

The Edinburgh taxi driver has now said he will never driver a taxi again after sustaining severe head injuries and possible internal injuries after the horrific attack in December.

Police Scotland have confirmed that enquiries are ongoing to track down six or seven thugs after the ambush on West Pilton Drive on December 29.

The taxi driver, who has asked to remain anonymous, said that he has been in and out of hospital since the attack happened.

Talking about the impact of the attack, he said: "Of course you feel upset- you feel broke. You don’t expect that kind of thing to happen.

"I thought I was going to die. It was horrible. You just try and forget but it’s not easy.”

The incident happened on Tuesday, December 29 at 2.40pm on West Pilton Drive when the 39-year-old on call and had to stop his car due to a number of youths throwing snowballs containing stones.

One missile left a huge crack across the front windscreen of his private hire vehicle.

Getting out of the car, the taxi driver challenged the young men and asked them to stop when he witnessed them targeting another private hire on the street.

He said: "As soon as I went out, altogether, six or seven of them attacked me, one of then then tried to take the car and I couldn’t stop him as when they were attacking me I was in and out of consciousness.”

"As soon as I went out, first two of them came at me then all of them.

"I couldn’t even remember their faces as it happened so quickly. It all happened in 10 minutes.”

During the attack, one youth drove off with the grey-coloured Mercedes car which has the registration number WP14ZRY and which contained the driver’s valuables.

He continued: “This wasn’t just a stolen car for me, this was my life.

"They stole everything from me, my car, my business which is my daily income and plus the fear makes you feel like you are not 100% strong.

"My wallet, my two phones for work and home and vehicle papers were stolen because it’s not just a car, it’s a workplace.”

After the incident, the driver was helped by the other taxi driver who was present at the scene and police were called three minutes later.

Emergency crews attended and the driver was taken to hospital for treatment.

Police have not yet been able to track down the vehicle and inquiries are ongoing find the criminals.

One of the thugs involved has been described by the police as male, white, 16/17 years, 5’8” tall, medium build with light brown short hair.

He was wearing a brown/yellow jacket and black tracksuit bottoms and spoke with a local accent.

Another male was describe as white, medium build, dark curly hair, wearing a black tracksuit.

The other youths are only described as being male, in the 16 to 17 years age range and were wearing dark coloured clothing.

Voicing his trauma after the attack, the driver added: "I would not do that taxi job ever again. Even if this is the last job, I’d rather beg on the street.”

"It's just not a safe job to do. If someone you don’t know can easily attack you in that way to almost kill you, that can happen again.”

"I now can’t stay with two or three people in the one place - it panics me - and if I see two or three people together and I don’t know them I think they are going to attack me.

“Even when I’m in the queue of a supermarket I feel so uncomfortable.”

"I don’t know what I can do at the moment for work but it would be something with a lot less people."

The driver believes the attack was carried out by ‘professional’ criminals as the thieves disabled the car’s tracker.

Police have also informed the driver that CCTV cameras were not working in the area.

The driver who moved to Edinburgh eleven years ago from Kurdistan, east of Turkey, said attacks like his may be because many foreign people drive private hires.

“This is not the first incident like this that has happened to private hire.

“Maybe because more foreign people do this job that’s why it’s target or that they think private hire drivers are rich - I don’t know why but private hires are always being targeted every year.”

The driver hopes that his story will encourage taxi companies to do something to protect drivers and mentioned that the Council and cab office could club together to ensure a dash camera is mandatory on all cabs and perhaps waive the fee.

"If criminals knew all taxis had a fitted cameras then they would not attack them which would benefit the police as well.”

Police Scotland have asked anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information that could assist them in their investigation to come forward.

Detective Constable Zaira Marker of Edinburgh Division’s CID said: “I would ask anyone who may have witnessed this robbery, or who may have any information which might assist us in this investigation to call us on the 101 number, giving the reference number 1841 of 29 December 2020.”

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