Briton fined for abusing Indian-origin taxi driver

A drunk British woman who racially abused an Indian origin taxi-driver in the east Midlands town of Leicester as he drove the couple home has been ordered to pay 300 pounds in compensation.

Elaine Weston, 53, pleaded guilty in the Leicester Magistrates' Court last week to using threatening, abusive or insulting words and behaviour to the unnamed driver on July 18.

Weston was also given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay 85 pounds as legal costs.

Prosecuting lawyer Kwok Wan said the driver had picked Weston and her husband up from Countesthorpe.

"She asked where his parents were from. He said India. She said they should go back there and stay there. She told him she was racist and blamed Asian immigrants for her son not being able to get a job," Wan said.

Weston spat at the back of the driver's neck and banged on the taxi when she was dropped off, he added.

The victim said he had never received such racist abuse in 22 years of taxi-driving.

Weston said she did not normally drink but had a large quantity of rum punch at a barbecue on that night. She could not recall being in the taxi and was appalled to hear how she had behaved. The Briton expressed her desire to apologise in writing to the victim.