Jailed: Driver's throat cut in attempted robbery by Telford woman

Nicola Firth cut the driver on his throat and hand as the pair wrestled in the car, a court heard.

Firth deliberately called a taxi from Ketley firm Diamond Cars in order to try and rob the driver, Shrewsbury Crown Court was told.

The taxi driver had taken a booking on March 5, 2016, from the Mines Centre in Sutton Hill at 5.45am.

Once there he found Firth, 35, of Victoria Court, Hadley, alone. She got in the car and he drove off.

Kevin Jones, prosecuting, said: "After driving for about 20 to 30 metres the driver noticed a hand around his shoulder.

"The driver grabbed out at her hand and found that it was holding a kitchen knife."

He said the driver suffered a cut on his finger and his throat in the process of wrestling with Firth, but then "he managed to pull her towards him and elbow her in the chest and the knife fell into the foot well."

He said that Firth then told the driver: "Give me £100 or my friend is coming."

The driver fought with Firth to finally get her out of the car, he said. The altercation lasted just minutes, but the driver said he had been in fear for his life.

Mr Jones said police were able to identify Firth from the number used to book the taxi, but initially she told them it was the driver who had attacked her.

However, she changed her plea to guilty of attempted robbery and carrying a bladed item before the case came to trial.

Debra White, defending, said Firth had been battling drug and alcohol addiction from her early 20s and often been the victim of exploitation at the hands of others.

"Her life from a very early age really spiralled downwards and, since she found herself in the dark place that she did, drug use and alcohol abuse became part of her life," she said.

After years of drug abuse and petty offences she had been to prison and managed to get clean and not offend again for 16 months.

Unfortunately she had replaced drug use with drinking though, which led to the events on the night in question.

"She does not have much recollection of events that night as she had been drinking heavily," she said, but added it was the drink that had led to her acting like that.

Judge Jim Tindall said her actions would have got a five to six year jail sentence had she been found guilty after a trial, they were that serious.

But he said 16 months clean and without offending was "extraordinary" considering her past.

He said her jail sentence was "deliberately intended to be enough time to put alcohol behind you.

"You have got yourself off drugs, now you must get yourself off drink also," he said.