A taxi driver offered two women cheap fares in return for sexual favours, a jury was told yesterday.

Haroon Sidiq picked up the women after they had been to a nightclub and drove them around Oxford city centre for five minutes, badgering them for sex, Oxford Crown Court heard.

The 25-year-old would take them home “for a tenner” and a sexual act and even picked up a friend who joined them in the car, it was alleged.

It was at that point the women, both aged in their 20s, ran from the car and rang the police.

Sidiq denied two counts of kidnap and one count of sexual assault when he appeared before the jury.

It was alleged the incident happened on July 25 last year.

Opening the trial, prosecutor David Povall told the jury: “Haroon Sidiq picked up two young women in the middle of the night. They negotiated a fare to take them home to Witney and the two women got in the car.

“Instead of following the directions he was given, he drove around central Oxford and propositioned one of them, asking for oral sex and sexually abused her by putting his hand on her leg.”

Sidiq, of Courtlands Road, Oxford, denies the charges. The trial continues.