FORMER soldier Raymond Hunt is to send back his Northern Ireland medal to the Queen in protest at being taken to court.

The 43-year-old ex-taxi boss and Army gunner, who fell foul of council taxi regulations, said: "I laid my life on the line for the Crown with three tours in Northern Ireland - now the Crown has turned its back on me."

Mr Hunt, who served with the Royal Artillery and ran 4Most Taxis in Wallingford for seven years, said: "I have lost my honour and I cannot keep this medal. The IRA couldn't get to me but the council has."

By IAN TOWNSEND

He tried to hand his General Service Medal to Thame magistrates but court officials refused to accept it.

South Oxfordshire district council revoked his taxi licence, saying he was not a fit and proper person to hold one, after he let his wife Susan drive two women home from bingo.

In January, magistrates fined him £150 and his wife £100 and ordered them to pay £175 costs each for breaching licence rules. Mr Hunt, of St Martin's Street, Wallingford, appeared in court again for failing to pay the money.

He told the court that he had hardly worked since and had no money to pay the fine.

After failing to hand in his medal, he told the Oxford Mail: "I am at the end of my tether. I have lost the work I loved serving the public. I cannot face people.

"My family has turned its back on me and will not help me with the fine and now the court has threatened me with prison if I do not pay the fine at £3 a week.

"I have been humiliated and it is all too much. I have considered suicide - I am at my wits' end. I am too damned proud to accept charity and benefits - I will have to go to jail."

Mr Hunt, who told the court he spent £3 a day on cigarettes - "the only pleasure now left" - was told to pay the fine at £3 a week.

He joined the Army in December 1969 and left in1982 with an exemplary record.

He served three tours in Northern Ireland in 1973, 1977 and 1980 and was at different times a regimental photographer and a regimental policeman.

Mr Hunt, who is looking for a job as a photographer, said he had complained to the local government ombudsman about his treatment by the council.

He said he still planned to give up his medal.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.