TAXI driver Palinder Randhawa was terrified by a violent attack on her cab by two drunken louts, a court heard yesterday.

Her ordeal began at 2.38am after she picked up pub licensee Stephen Burns and his friend Andrew Mee, both aged 30.

Burns punched in Ms Randhawa's side window, showering her with glass, and Mee wrenched off the passenger side wing mirror, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Miss Randhawa, who worked for Quaker Cabs in Darlington, took them from the town centre to the Springfield Hotel, Salters Lane, where Burns was the landlord.

She was abused as she pulled up at the hotel, and asked for the £4.65 fare.

She locked herself in, shaking with fear, when they started damaging her cab, said prosecutor Dan Cordey. Burns and Nee, of Lanchester Avenue, Billingham, admitted a charge of causing affray on September 23 last year.

Robin Turton, defending 6ft 4in Burns, said that he had lost his job over the incident, which was out of character as he was known as "a gentle giant".

Stephen Constantine, defending Mee, told the court that he was full of remorse for his inexplicable behaviour, but there was no racial motive to it.

Judge Leslie Spittle told them: "You acted like drunken louts, but I accept that it was totally out of character and that the taxi driver, although in shock and fear, was not injured."

Burns and Nee were both given 280 hours community service orders, and ordered to pay £100 costs with £50 compensation