Bangladeshi driver faces jail for groping woman in London

LONDON - A 44-year-old Bangladeshi-origin taxi driver is facing jail and deportation for allegedly grabbing a passenger’s breasts after she got into his cab.

Unlicensed taxi driver Zamal Uddin, who has been living in Britain for 20 years, but has not learnt English, was criticised by a judge for failing to integrate into the society.

Uddin faces a jail sentence and deportation for groping a 26-year-old woman after she got into his cab in Hoxton, east London, the Daily Mail reported.

Prosecutor Helen Owen told the court: “The taxi driver picked up a female who was intoxicated and then touched her breasts while she was in the cab. She got out of the cab and he followed her before pushing her against the wall and grabbing her under her clothes. She then screamed and he ran off.”

The driver lives among one of Britain’s biggest Bangladeshi communities in Bethnal Green.

Uddin, who required an interpreter during the hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court, was found guilty of sexually assaulting the woman twice, and told he would be liable for deportation after he finishes his sentence.

“The authorities may consider your continued presence here undesirable,” Judge Timothy King said.

“Also what troubles me, although it’s not something that bears on sentence, he has been her for 20 years and requires an interpreter. I suspect he lives within his own community and has never bothered to learn English.”

“It is highly desirable that those who come to this country from abroad integrate, rather than live isolated within their own community.”