Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Livery Driver Gets Jail For Holding Family Hostage in Cab

By Trevor Kapp | June 5, 2012 3:44pm
Bhupinder Singh, 38, of Ridgewood, Queens, was sentenced to six months in jail Monday.
Bhupinder Singh, 38, of Ridgewood, Queens, was sentenced to six months in jail Monday.
View Full Caption
Chris Hondros/Getty Images

QUEENS — A crazed Queens cabbie who illegally solicited a family of four from Panama at Kennedy Airport last February, then imprisoned them in his vehicle as he fled from cops, has been sentenced to six months in jail, District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced Tuesday.

Livery cab driver Bhupinder Singh, 38, of Ridgewood, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree unlawful imprisonment and was sentenced Monday by Criminal Court Judge Dorothy Chin-Brandt.

Brown said that Singh illegally offered the visitors a ride on Feb. 21. After two Port Authority police officers stepped out of their vehicles to question Singh, he locked the doors of his Lincoln Town Car, put the vehicle in reverse and sped off around the officers.

Singh later crashed the car into a guard rail after one of the victims struggled with him for control of the wheel.

He fled on foot, but was nabbed after a brief foot pursuit. 

Brown said that with the summer fast approaching, it’s important to provide a welcome environment for tourists at airports.

"As this case clearly illustrated, unregulated taxis and unscrupulous drivers… put passengers at serious risk," he said. "Reckless behavior such as that exhibited by the defendant can neither be tolerated nor go unpunished."