taxi driver just a week after being released from prison for a similar offence.

Marcel Sheppard of Somerset Road, Sandys, was also in breach of his probation when he committed the offence on June 3, 1995.

Sgt. Donald Grant, prosecuting, said a taxi driver picked Sheppard up around 1.10 a.m. on Somerset Road and took him to the Hitching Post to meet his girlfriend.

Since she was not there, the driver took him back to his original destination.

The trip cost $8.

Once there, Sheppard got out of the taxi and approached the driver. He asked him to change $100 and showed the driver a partially-torn Public Transport Board schedule.

The driver, mistaking the schedule for a genuine $100 note, pulled out $130 in cash to make the change.

Sheppard then snatched the money and ran. When he was caught a few days later, Sheppard admitted that he used the money to buy cocaine.

He had received a nine-month prison sentence on August 15, 1994, for robbing another taxi driver. He also committed an assault during the theft for which he was put on probation for two years.

Sheppard was released from prison on May 27, 1995, and had just started his probation.

Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis said:"Taxi drivers around here want the courts to do everything they can to discourage this type of crime. Taxi drivers feel they are walking through a minefield when this type of activity goes on.''