A man who hijacked a taxi driver and robbed another was caught after his mother phoned police.
Martin Joseph Patrick Doherty, 29, was jailed for five and a half years after agreeing to spend a further 18 months on probation.

A judge told him his mother deserved tremendous credit as to make a statement against her son "must have been incredibly difficult".

His mother spotted him removing the taxi sign from a hijacked taxi.

He and two other men had hijacked it earlier on May 9 2003.

The judge said: "Taxi drivers are extremely vulnerable providing an essential service at all hours of the day and night and attacks like this leave them frightened and apprehensive."

The court heard the trio produced a screwdriver and threatened to stab the taxi driver in Belfast city centre if he did not get out.

Another male shouted for them to "bundle him into the boot", said a lawyer, but their victim managed to break free and ran to Donegall Pass police station.

The judge was told that in relation to the further indictment against Doherty, also involving a taxi driver, that on 25 August 2005, he and another unknown male put a screwdriver to the throat of the driver.

However, when the pair discovered that he had no money, they ran off into Musgrave Park.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6451175.stm