Former Shortland Street "bad boy" Paul Reid has been charged with bashing a taxi driver.

Reid, 27, appeared in the Auckland District Court last week and pleaded not guilty to assaulting Auckland Co-op Taxi driver Harbinder Saini.

Reid - who used to play out-of-control teen Marshall Heywood on the TV2 soap - was also charged with being in an enclosed yard in Freemans Bay, Auckland, without reasonable excuse on the same day.

He denied the incident happened when approached by Sunday News last week, claiming "assaulting taxi drivers isn't really my thing".

"Na, na, it's not true at all. I don't know where you got that information from but it's wrong. That's weird man, who said that?"

When contacted yesterday Reid continued to deny any incident and said he found the fact he had been charged "confusing".

"Well, it didn't happen," he said.

When pushed for further comment Reid said: "Um, ah, I've been advised not to, um, say anything by my lawyer at this stage, so, no thank you."

Reid - who runs the Paul Reid School of Rock Drumming and was the lead singer of rock group Rubicon - allegedly attacked Saini after getting a ride from the central city to Ponsonby about 5am on July 6.

Saini received a cut above his left eye and bruising around his eye and cheek.

Saini declined to be interviewed by Sunday News but his boss - Auckland Co-op Taxi chairman Ian Graham - said his driver's injuries were so bad, he had to spend the day of the alleged assault in an accident and emergency ward.

Then, after being discharged, he returned to hospital the following day suffering from "blackouts".

Graham said Saini asked his passenger to remove takeaway wrappings he had left in his cab.

"There wasn't a disagreement. It's my understanding that the gentleman left the car and was asked to remove them (the papers), and the gentleman apparently did do that, then he just came around and allegedly thumped him," Graham said.

A police source said after the incident, a dog squad tracked the passenger to a nearby property.

Saini has not returned to work yet but will do so shortly.

"He's not too bad, he's under a bit of stress still," Graham said after speaking with Saini.

"But unfortunately he's in a situation where he has to come back to work because he has family to look after and because taxi drivers don't get paid by anyone else but themselves."

When Reid - who recently became a father for the first time with wife Rhiannon Cole - appeared in the Auckland District Court he was remanded to his Laingholm, west Auckland, home and was ordered to re-appear in September.  

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4136002a1860.html