GAZETTE & HERALD: TWO former taxi drivers with a grudge against their ex-boss disabled half his fleet of cars on a tyre-slashing rampage, a court was told.

Six Home James Taxis, parked outside separate addresses in Chippenham, were put out of action at the end of January, disrupting a school bus service.

Manager Ross Skinner woke up to find flat tyres on his taxi parked in London Road. He claimed the men's actions meant he would not have been able to rush his asthmatic daughter, toddler Jodie, to hospital in an emergency.

The firm also had to make alternative arrangements for more than 40 children it is contracted by Wiltshire county Council to take to school each morning, many of them with special needs.

The vehicles, which included two with wheelchair facilities, were off the road during the morning and the firm, based in Palmer Street, was left with a £1,000 repair bill.

Jason Hyde, 29, of Barrow Green, in Chippenham, and 27-year-old Mark Russell, of Charter Road, also from Chippenham, pleaded guilty to charges of criminal damage at Chippenham Magistrates Court on April 8.

Both men were fined £250, ordered to pay £600 in compensation and £50 towards the costs of the prosecution.

The boss of Home James Taxis Jim Mitchell, said: "I'm not surprised by what small-minded people do. I suppose I was angry, but my immediate thought was how could we sort this out.

"My manager relied on the car that was outside his house to take his daughter to the hospital. If she'd had an attack she would almost certainly have died."

PC Ben Blackmore who led the investigation, said: "They had a grudge against Mr Mitchell and they decided, for whatever reason, that the best way to deal with this grudge was to make life awkward for him.

"They decided the best way to take it out on him was by damaging his vehicles."

Mr Mitchell said he first came across Hyde two-years ago, when he started working for him part-time, but they parted company and Hyde went to work for Easy's Taxis.

According to Mr Mitchell, 38, last June Hyde returned asking for a job.

He took him on, but let him go after an argument about a damaged car, which the taxi boss alleged Hyde had returned to him with a burnt out clutch.

Then a week before the tyre slashing attack Mr Mitchell claimed Hyde, who is going out with his ex-girlfriend, turned up at his doorstep asking for his job back, which he refused.

Mr Mitchell claimed he fell out with Russell when he reneged on a deal to rent one of the taxis boss's cars. Mr Mitchell took him to court, where he was awarded £300 compensation.