A DRUNKEN Darlington man jumped up and down on a Romanian taxi driver’s car bonnet after telling him to ‘go back to his own country’, a court heard.

Mark Simmons told police that he was too drunk to remember the incident on April 24 in which he refused to pay the taxi driver his £7 fare after hearing of his nationality.

Prosecutor Blair Martin described to Darlington Magistrates’ Court today (Tuesday, May 14) how Simmons’ kicked the taxi’s dashboard and vandalised the car once the driver stopped.

Mr Martin said: “The defendant grabs the door and pulls it back on its hinges beyond a point it would normally open and said; ‘go back to your own country’.

“The driver calls the police.

“The defendant pulls the wing mirror until it comes off; he climbs on to the vehicle and jumps up and down on it, causing damage to the bonnet.”

Mr Martin said that when a police officer arrived, Simmons asked him if he was foreign before kicking him in the thigh.

Simmons, 28, of Tunstall Terrace pleaded guilty to racially aggravated criminal damage, making off without payment and assaulting a police officer.

Mitigating, Stephen Andrews said Simmons had been “greatly affected” by the recent suicide of his cousin and had been drinking heavily.

He said Simmons now had a job and was determined to turn his life around because his partner had stopped him from seeing her two children unless he stopped drinking.

Mr Andrews said: “He (Simmons) tells me he is frankly appalled by his own conduct.

“He wishes me to stress to you he would not classify himself as somebody who has anything like racist tendencies and that is why he is so appalled by his behaviour.”

Presiding magistrate Pat Wilson adjourned the case for a probation report and Simmons will be sentenced on May 23.