BRADFORD

Cabbie denies molesting girl, 17, with learning difficulties

A PRIVATE hire driver accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl with learning difficulties has told a jury he was feeling for his cigarette lighter on her seat and never touched her indecently.

Mohammed Adrees, 44, said the bubbly and talkative student was sitting next to him in the cab so he could hear what she was saying to him on the 35 minute journey.

Adrees, of Ryan Street, West Bowling, Bradford, pleads not guilty to two offences of sexual assault and one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity, on April 1 last year.

The jury has been told he is alleged to have committed the offences while working as a driver for Euro Cars on a local authority contract to take the 17-year-old girl to college that morning.

It was only the second time he had driven her, the court heard yesterday.

Adrees said he had been a cab driver for a number of years and had no criminal convictions.

He had done special training for "social" jobs with Bradford Council, including transporting passengers who were elderly or disabled.

Adrees said the teenager was very talkative and on his first journey with her. She moved from the back seats to the middle row of his vehicle so he could hear her.

The next day, he stopped the cab so she could transfer from the back to the front passenger seat.

Adrees said she was very interested in boy bands and hoped to meet One Direction.

"She seemed like a jolly girl. She was laughing and joking and full of life. Happy," he said.

He asked her if he could smoke and she raised herself up on her seat so he could feel for his lighter.

When he retrieved it, she told him she did not want him to light a cigarette so he put them away.

After they arrived at the college, he apologised for asking if he could smoke on the journey.

Adrees told the jury he did not touch the student sexually at any stage.

The girl complained to her mother that Adrees felt her legs when she asked him if she was overweight.

He is then accused of putting his hand down her knickers and putting her hand on to his penis over his clothing.

She claims he asked if he could touch her breasts and she told him "no".

The trial continues.

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/13375529.Cabbie_denies_molesting_girl__17__with_learning_difficulties/
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Surprise Insurance Tax hike in Yesterdays budget.

Insurance premium Tax was raised in the budget Yesterday. The 3.5% hike may not seem a lot..but.. for those trapped in the weekly Insurance payment system (madness) the rise could cost over an additional £136 a year.

This comes at a time when authorities such as Manchester have frozen fare rises for another consecutive year.