A MINICAB driver, who already had a caution for soliciting in his taxi, sexually abused a female passenger as he was taking her home after a night out.
Dilruba Ramzan of Haddon Road, Lillington, was jailed for four years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life after a jury at Warwick Crown Court had found him guilty of sexually assault.
The 41-year-old’s victim told the court how in January last year after finishing work at around midnight, she and some of her colleagues had gone to a bar in Leamington.
When the bar closed the young woman, who accepted that as well as drinking she had taken a small amount of cocaine, got a taxi for her and a friend.
The driver, Ramzan, first took them to Leamington railway station and then to her friend’s home nearby.
She told the jury she followed her friend inside, but left some time later and was again picked up by Ramzan – but thought the route he was taking to her home was unfamiliar.
He pulled up in an area which was later identified as near the junction of Gresham Road and Valley Road in Lillington.
She said Ramzan then put his hand between her legs and told her he was aroused but she pushed his hand away.
The woman vehemently denied Ramzan’s assertion that it was she who had taken his hand and placed it between her legs.
And following an adjournment for a pre-sentence report, the court heard his victim said she felt Ramzan had ruined her life.
John Edwards, defending said there were a number of references for Ramzan, a family man who had lost the job he held dear after 23 years.
But the judge pointed out that many of them were from people who think he is not guilty and wrongly believe him to be the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Jailing Ramzan, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: “You were arrested and you lied about what happened, your lies being tailored as each new piece of evidence emerged.
“Women have a right to expect they can trust taxi drivers not to use their position in this way. It was a form of abduction, taking her to a layby and locking the doors.
“You are still in complete denial of what happened, and you still blame her for putting you in this position but I have no doubt whatsoever that the jury reached the right verdict.”
