SHAUN Stephenson's Christmas night out in Blackburn left him with a sour taste in his mouth. Blackburn magistrates heard that he was abandoned by a taxi driver, whom he had paid up front, after leaving the car to be sick. And he eventually spent the night in police cells after making repeated 999 calls from a telephone box.

Stephenson, 18, of Tennyson Road, Colne, was bound over in the sum of £100 to be of good behaviour for 12 months. A charge of being drunk and disorderly was withdrawn.

Wendy Shackleton, prosecuting, said police went to Grimshaw Park, Blackburn, because of the 999 calls. They found Stephenson, completely drunk, complaining about a taxi driver who had dropped him off in the middle of nowhere.

Ian Huggan, defending, said: "He was indeed sick and because a little bit of vomit went on his trousers, the driver would not let him back in the car. The driver left my client, without money and not even knowing where he was."

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