A taxi driver employed by a Suffolk travel company which was allegedly subjected to a campaign of damage by a disgruntled former employee was left “alarmed and frightened” after a rear window was shattered during a night shift, a court has heard.

Sarah Waller was driving a Goldline Travel taxi on a roundabout near the A146 on her return to the company depot at about 9pm when the near side rear passenger window shattered with a “loud bang”, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

In a statement read to the court Ms Waller said the glass had shattered into the car and would have gone over anyone sitting in the back of the vehicle.

She said the incident, which happened in December 2015, had “frightened and alarmed” her and she had immediately returned to the Goldline depot at Ellough near Beccles, where a metal bearing was found in the vehicle.

She said at the time the window smashed there were no other vehicles that could have caused the damage.

Before the court are Adrian Ling, 63, of Woodside, Beccles, and Daniel Garrison, 34, of Danforth Drive, Woodbridge.

They have denied conspiring to commit criminal damage to property belonging to Goldline Travel between December 2012 and November 2019.

Ling has also denied four offences of having an air rifle with intent to commit criminal damage.

It has been alleged that during a campaign of violence by Ling against Goldline Travel its vehicles were repeatedly vandalised and on several occasions, taxis were shot at.

The court heard that Ling started working with Goldline in 2008 as a mechanic and was sacked by its owner Ian Trussler in 2012.

“It is clear that he was very angry about being sacked and it’s the prosecution case that he has harboured a significant personal grudge against Ian Trussler and Goldline and has carried out a sustained vendetta against them,” alleged Andrew Thompson, prosecuting. 

He claimed that Ling, who was convicted of stealing diesel from Goldline but subsequently acquitted on appeal, started the vendetta following his dismissal while Garrison allegedly joined the conspiracy in 2016.

The trial continues.