By Claire Warrender and Lars Niven

A Fife taxi driver has called for passengers who misbehave in cabs to be named and shamed.

Kim Skinner from Kirkcaldy, who has her own cab, was speaking as new statistics revealed four out of every five drivers had experienced a verbal attack from a member of the public and a third had been physically assaulted or spat on within the last year.

The survey—commissioned to support the Scottish Government’s Violence at Work campaign—found the high level of attacks had left three-quarters of those in the industry worried.

There was almost universal agreement by drivers that they felt more vulnerable to abuse as they worked alone.

The research conducted among 256 taxi drivers in Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh highlighted that two-thirds of those who have experienced abuse did not report the offence, with many saying there was no point.

The Scottish Taxi Federation has now asked the public to check their behaviour when they enter a taxi and remember that taxi drivers are only trying to do their job and do not deserve to be on the receiving end of abuse, aggression or anger.

Secretary of Kirkcaldy Taxi Association Arthur Wylie said he had heard of some incidents from drivers but added violence was not as widespread in Fife as it was in the bigger cities.

However, he agreed drivers should not have to tolerate violence or abuse.

“There doesn’t really seem too much bother in Kirkcaldy, although I think it’s more of a problem in Glenrothes,” he said.

That view was supported by Ms Skinner, who said she was badly assaulted in Glenrothes around 18 months ago.

“If the police had caught them they would have been looking at a jail sentence,” she said.

“They pulled me by the hair and kicked me because they wanted my money bag. My jaw was all bruised and it was quite serious.”

She added that she had been assaulted again since then but did not bother reporting the incident as she did not think it would be taken seriously.

Ms Skinner has previously suggested a scheme, similar to Pub Watch, whereby people who misbehaved in taxis were named and shamed and banned from cabs in the future.

“People seem to be allowed to do what they want and we get no respect,” she said.

“It’s a joke.”In January a taxi driver from Dunfermline told how a piece of metal was hurled through the back window of the car he was driving.

Thomas Wilson had just picked up a fare at one of the town’s Asda supermarkets when a youth wearing a hoodie stepped forward and threw the missile.

It missed Mr Wilson and his passenger by inches.

The youth who carried out the attack—which took place in January in the St Leonard’s area of the town—has never been caught.

At the time 46-year-old Mr Wilson said if the teenager had struck the driver’s window he could have been killed.

The incident happened as Mr Wilson was driving his boss’s silver Peugeot 406.

He had been on shift for a couple of hours and was working his usual beat at the St Leonard’s supermarket.

He was just leaving the car park when the incident happened.

“I don’t know what made me turn round but I was speaking to this gentleman I’d just picked up,” he told The Courier at the time.

“I just heard this boy swear at us and the next thing this piece of metal came right through the back window.

“I was that shocked I just stopped the car dead.”

Mr Wilson said he was convinced both he and his passenger had a very lucky escape.

“If he’d hit the driver’s side window I was dead, there’s no getting away from that, the way it came in,” he said.

“He knew what he was doing.”

In March of last year the police were forced to throw up roadblocks after a man robbed a store and then made off in a stolen taxi.

The incident happened in broad daylight in the centre of Dunfermline.

The thief made off with cash from the Somerfield store in the Kingsgate Shopping Centre and ran into Pilmuir Street.

He went up to the taxi at the front of the rank next to the post office and hauled the driver out of the vehicle before speeding off.

The car was found abandoned.

Two men were subsequently arrested and charged in connection with the robbery at Somerfield and one in connection with the theft of the taxi.