A student who beat up a mini-cab driver and dragged him out of his taxi at gunpoint before stealing it has been jailed.

David Sieni, of Bramley House, in Tunworth Crescent, Roehampton, was sentenced to 13 years in prison at Croydon Crown Court after being convicted of robbery and possession of an imitation firearm with intent.

The 23-year-old was picked up by the cab in Holybourne Avenue, Roehampton, last December, after the taxi company received a call from a man claiming to be called Jason.

Sieni demanded to be taken to Crystal Palace, but when they arrived at the destination another man was waiting and driver was threatened with a gun.

He was hit round the head with the weapon before Sieni pulled him out of the car.

The thug then repeatedly punched the driver, robbed him of his belongings and drove off in the cab with the other man.

The taxi driver was treated in hospital for cuts and bruises and his mini-cab was eventually recovered in Lewisham.

During Sieni’s trial it emerged he carried out the brutal attack while on early release from prison - on licence for a previous robbery in 2004, in which staff at a Bournemouth jewellers had been sprayed with CS gas.

Sieni was sentenced at the end of July to 13 years behind bars for the robbery and 5 years for the firearms offence, which will run concurrently. He will also serve the remainder of his eight year sentence for the Bournemouth raid, which runs until 2012.

Bromley police continue to hunt the other man.