taxi driver got underway in Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Shari Birch, of Zuill's Park, pleaded not guilty to the charge which stemmed from an incident on October 8 at the Reefs Hotel in Southampton.

Taxi driver Eugene Lottimore told the court he followed a woman in a white car into the Reefs that day and saw her way was blocked by a van which was leaving the premises.

Mr. Lottimore said the van driver asked Birch three times to move out of the way but she did not seem to hear him. She then pulled into the parking lot, the van left and he parked his cab next to her.

As he was dealing with his passengers, Mr. Lottimore said Birch approached him and started swearing at him and calling him a "black bastard'' and a "f---ing asshole''.

Mr. Lottimore said he ignored her and helped the passengers get their golf bags out of his cab. Meanwhile Birch got back in her car and was pulling out of the parking lot when she spat in his face and drove away, he said.

Birch's statement to Police was read out in court by P.c. Dalana Robinson.

In it she told Police that when she entered the Reefs driveway, she thought she had to go all the way down the driveway which she believed was one way.

Birch told Police that the van backed out in front of her and she thought it would go around her but it did not. The driver said something that she did not hear.

As she waited a taxi pulled in behind her, she continued, and its driver yelled something at her but she could not hear him.

Then the van driver called her a "white bitch'' and claimed she had blocked his way on purpose which "was what white people did'', she said.

She went and parked in the car park and the taxi driver pulled up next to her.

Birch said he told her that people like her should not be given driving permits and said she drove like an idiot.

Birch said she threatened to report him but he replied that he would have her thrown off the Island because she was "a dirty white foreigner''.

The woman said she decide to leave because the situation was heating up and her 13-year-old daughter -- who was with her -- was pleading with her to go.

She told Police that as she was reversing, Mr. Lottimore "charged her'' and her reaction was to spit at him because she felt "extremely threatened''.

DISCRIMINATION DIS