A TAXI driver is on trial accused of sexually assaulting a customer outside a city pub on New Year’s Day.

Royal Cars driver Lutfur Rahman, of Wood Farm Road, Oxford, denies kissing the woman on the cheek in his taxi outside the Oxford Retreat on January 1 last year.

Opening the case at Oxford Crown Court yesterday, prosecutor Janette Hayne said the woman and four friends got the taxi to the Hythe Bridge Street pub from Bedford Street at about 12.30am.

She said the woman, who was in the front passenger seat, paid the driver at the end of the journey and was sexually assaulted as she went to leave.

The prosecutor added: “She felt the driver take hold of her arm and pull him towards him. She moved away so that the defendant, coming in towards her, kissed her on the cheek.”

She said Rahman, 59, told police he did not pull or kiss the woman. The court heard the woman sent an email complaint to the taxi firm on January 13 and reported the incident to police.

Defence barrister Jonathan Mitchell said the taxi firm told the woman there had never been any complaints about Rahman but a formal investigation would take place and had been reported to the council’s head of taxi licensing.

The trial continues.