LONDON

TfL resort to blackmail to restrict in Taxi protest.

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BRISTOL 

A TAXI driver who groped a passenger as she paid her fare has been jailed.

Bristol Crown Court heard Maninder Singh put his hand down the off-duty nurse's top and squeezed her naked breast as she tried to hand over a £10 note.

Singh denied wrongdoing, claiming his little finger may have touched the woman as he tried to stop her leaving the cab before handing over the money.

But magistrates convicted him of sexual assault and yesterday the 30-year-old, of Royal Road, Mangotsfield, was jailed for nine months.

Neil Treharne, prosecuting, said the woman got into Singh's taxi in Colston Street and asked to be taken to Bedminster.

After stopping at two cash machines, at the end of the trip the woman went to give Singh £10 and he leaned over her and groped her.

Mr Treharne said she pushed his hand away and left the taxi, giving police a description of the driver and the vehicle.

The complainant gave a statement in which she described how the incident caused her stress and anxiety, knocked her confidence at work and how she could no longer face using taxis.

Giles Nelson, defending, said Singh was a father-of-two, with a third child due this month. He said Singh worked and sent money to his mother in the Punjab, who had suffered a heart attack.

Mr Nelson said: "He has gone to the council and handed in his licence.

"He's lost taxi work for ever and a day. He's lost his good name. He feels very strongly the disgrace this conviction brought to bear on his mother and the impact within the community, in which he is very closely involved."

Singh hung his head as recorder Adrian Palmer QC told him: "You were driving a taxi at 4am in Bristol. Your sole passenger was a young lady who was affected by alcohol.

"At the end of the journey she offered payment of the fare and you took advantage of the situation and placed your right hand down her top and on to her left breast, cupping and squeezing it.

"She got out in disgust at what you had done."

The recorder ordered Singh to pay his victim £250 compensation and a £100 victim surcharge.

He was told to register as a sex offender.