A MINICAB driver was stripped of his licence as soon as police told the council he was being investigated for assaulting a female customer.

Oxford City Council confirmed that Ali Said’s private hire licence was suspended with immediate effect from October 16, 2018.

It followed 36-year-old Said’s arrest for touching a woman as he drove her home to Abingdon from Oxford in the early hours of October 14.

A spokesman for the city council said: “The Council assisted in the police investigation and provided all requested information and statements.

“The private hire driver licence was never reinstated due to the ongoing police investigation and it expired in 2020.”

Last week, Said, of Union Street, Oxford, was found guilty by jurors at Oxford Crown Court of two counts of sexual assault.

His victim had been at the Thirst nightclub in Oxford on October 14 when she began to feel unwell.

She left the club at around 1.15am and got into Said’s white Toyota Prius minicab. He was not licensed to pick up fares at the roadside. Despite that, Said told her to get in the front passenger seat – which he reclined.

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The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, woke up to find Said touching her. The cab was parked up and she did not know where they were. He was said to have repeated the word ‘sex’ to her.

Said will be sentenced on July 22.