five youngsters.

For after dropping the four young men and a woman off in Somerset, the cabbie found his expensive leather upholstery had been slashed with a knife.

The 47-year-old part-time driver from Warwick said: "I was quite upset -- and it's caused me develop the same mentality as a lot of other drivers. You just drive past young people.

"It's very unfortunate because what is happening is that the innocent are going to suffer for the actions of a guilty few.

"Being selective about who you pick up is already more prevalent than you might think.'' The driver stopped in the early hours of Sunday morning outside the Ice Queen in Paget after being flagged down.

He said he was on his way home after a long shift and tried to call the youngsters another cab as a good turn. But when none turned up, he offered to do the job himself.

The cabbie added: "I got the impression a lot of drivers had been driving right past them.

"I was a bit wary because I thought they could be troublesome -- but everything went fine.

"It wasn't until later I noticed that one of the young men sitting in the very back seat had sliced the leather seat,'' he added.

The young woman was dropped off on Sound View Road and the four young men, probably aged in their late teens or early 20s, were dropped off around Scott's Hill.

A square of leather around three inches by two inches was cut out of the seat -- which means the whole cushion will need to be re-covered.

The driver, who drives at weekends to raise extra cash for his children's education, said he had offered to pay the owner of the cab for the damage and was waiting on an estimate.

And he added: "I would go anywhere and pick up anyone but now I'm no longer going to do that. It's just adding to the frustration of young people out there -- they're quite angry and quite bitter.

"I stopped to pick them up and I took the brunt of that frustration. It will be quite expensive to repair.''