Groping taxi driver Shakeel Uddin jailed for six months for molesting sleeping passenger in his cab



A SYDNEY taxi driver who molested a woman after she fell asleep in his cab will serve at least six months in jail.

Shakeel Uddin, 48, was sentenced to a minimum six months and maximum nine months in prison at Burwood Local Court yesterday.

The court heard he picked up a 24-year-old passenger in January. She fell asleep a short time later and woke up to find Uddin groping her in the back seat.

She ran from the taxi, which Uddin had parked in Summer Hill, after picking her up from the Sydney CBD between 1am and 1.40am on February 23 this year.

He was accused of kissing the side of her neck and ­rubbing her breast and between her legs on top of her underwear.

A police officer patrolling the area noticed a crying young woman standing near the cab and yelling out: “You touched me, you don’t touch someone to wake them up.”

The police officer then saw the woman slam the front passenger door and the taxi drove off.

Police arrested Uddin in his cab in Western Sydney two weeks after the assault.

He denied the allegations but after a three-day hearing he was found guilty to the charge of assault with an act of indecency.

In sentencing him, Magistrate Margaret Quinn said she had no option but to give him a jail sentence.

“There hasn’t been any contrition or remorse, there is a denial of the fact,” she said. “It’s a very serious offence.”

Ms Quinn said the fact that a police officer had witnessed some of the incident was a deciding factor in her finding Uddin guilty.

“It was not simply just word on word,” she said.

Ms Quinn said that as a taxi driver he had committed a “breach of trust”.

“You have to protect the community,” she said. “A person going home in a taxi has a right to feel safe.”

Uddin looked shocked as he was taken away by Corrective Services officers.

He will be eligible for parole in June.

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