Courts must ordinarily impose heavy deterrent penalties on those who gratuitously assault taxi drivers, who provide a valuable community service in situations leaving them vulnerable to attack. However, a head sentence of five years for robbery with personal violence of a taxi driver by an unarmed offender acting alone and without premeditation is manifestly excessive, even where the offender has a significant criminal history, when compared with sentences in comparable cases which show a range up to approximately five and a half years for more serious offending involving weapons, company, or arson.
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