A London cabbie who boasted about his sex life and showed pornography to a “disgusted” female passenger has been handed a suspended prison sentence.
Howard Cravitz, 60, quickly turned the conversation to sex when he picked up a mother to take her to collect her son with special needs from school.
Westminster magistrates court heard Cravitz, who is married, said he takes Viagra, has sex twice a week, and he went on to talk graphically about oral sex.
He continued to talk sex on the journey to school in Westminster, quizzing the woman on her “favourite sexual position”, and upon arrival he showed the woman explicit pornographic images on his phone.
The woman was then forced to get back into the cab for the return leg with her son, as Cravitz had been booked as her transportation to and from the special needs school.
Prosecutor David Burns said the woman was “shocked and embarrassed” by Cravitz’s behaviour on December 14 last year, and she “felt trapped in the vehicle”.
“This incident changed my life”, the woman said in a victim impact statement, branding Cravitz a “sexual deviant”.
“I was trapped in a cab with a horrible individual who seemed to enjoy what he was doing.
“I was truly disgusted, scared, and uncomfortable with a man talking to a woman like this.”
Addressing her words directly to Cravitz, the woman said: “You made me feel unsafe to use taxi cabs. I feel sick every time I have to use them.
“You should be ashamed of what you did.”
Cravitz’s licence to drive a black cab was revoked by Transport for London when the complaint was first made.
The court heard his marriage is now in peril, and Cravitz, a grandfather, has vowed to give up looking online at pornography.
“Your behaviour on this day was deplorable”, said District Judge Briony Clarke.
“She was in a difficult position given your cab was part of the transportation arrangements for her child.
“She had little choice but to get into your vehicle, you behaved in this way, and when she got to the schol she had to got to put her son in that situation.”
She added to Cravitz: “You have sullied the good name of black cab drivers in this city.
“People think they can trust black cab drivers, and you couldn’t be trusted.”
Cravitz, who lives in Romford, was handed a 16-week prison sentence suspended for 18 months. He must attend 30 days of rehab and complete 200 hours of community service.
The judge also imposed a three-year restraining order, banning Cravitz from contacting the victim.
He pleaded guilty to a public order offence of displaying a writing, sign, or visiblerepresentation which was threatening, abusive or insulting, causing harassment, alarm or distress.
