Arrest after taxi driver seriously injured in assault

A taxi driver has been flown from Hastings to Wellington Hospital after an apparent robbery and assault late on Saturday night. Photo / File

A 32-year-old man faces a charge of wounding with intent to injure after an alleged attack on a taxi driver in Hawke's Bay.

Detective Sergeant Heath Jones, of Hawke's Bay CIB, confirmed the arrest late this afternoon, about 17 hours after the late-Saturday night incident in Flaxmere.

Rushed to Hawke's Bay Fallen Soldiers Hospital in Hastings by the St John Ambulance
Service in a serious condition, he was later flown to Wellington Hospital for surgery.
The victim had been found about 11.20pm, about the time his vehicle was found empty in Yarmouth Rd.

Early reports that the taxi had been stolen and then abandoned appeared to have not been correct.

The arrested man faces a charge with a maximum penalty of 14 years' jail and was expected to appear in Hastings District Court on Monday.

Media staff at Te Whatu Ora Te Matau a Māui, Hawke's Bay (formerly the Hawke's Bay District Health Board) said a man in his 60s had been flown to Wellington Hospital for surgery.

Jones said police would like to reassure the community that incidents like this are taken extremely seriously.

Last year, two teenagers were sentenced to terms in prison after admitting their parts in the early-morning robbery of a 47-year-old taxi driver who suffered nose and eye socket fractures in a planned attack in which he had been called to Havelock North and lured into a trap set by the offenders.

In that incident two men appeared out of the dark but were let into the vehicle when they confirmed the name in which the call had been made and showed the driver cash they had money for the fare.

But once in the car they began punching and restraining the driver as he tried to call for help in a series of events about which the victim later commented: "This was the worst night of my life. I thought I was going to die that night."