Alaksur Rahman, 39, assaulted a media executive as she returned home from a party in Hoxton in June last year, the jury was told.

Police decided to take no further action against Rahman following the attack, and 10 days later he sexually assaulted a PR executive as she headed home from a night out in Shoreditch.

Rahman, of Poplar, was jailed for 30 months at Snaresbrook crown court after he admitted two charges of sexual assault. He has a previous conviction for soliciting for business as a minicab driver.

Sentencing, Judge Martin Zeidman said: “The message is this, woman have a right to be treated decently and that applies whether they are sober or drunk.

“If a drunk woman gets into your cab, as happened on both these occasions, you as a minicab driver are on trust not to take advantage of those women who are intoxicated and vulnerable.”

The court heard that Rahman assaulted the media executive after she booked the cab and shared part of the journey home with another woman.

She became uneasy when the other passenger was dropped off and she was left alone with Rahman.

He fondled her leg as she paid her fare, then put his hand on her shoulder. She pushed him away but he followed her to her front door and she began frantically ringing the bell because she could not find her door keys.

Rahman left the scene when he saw she did not live alone.

The woman described herself as “drunk” but said she was still in control, and said she was terrified by the experience.

The PR executive who was sexually assaulted by Rahman 10 days later after he drove her to a dark residential street said she felt paralysed with fear.

She screamed then sprinted towards a main road, where she called her boyfriend. In a statement, she said: “I was extremely shocked by his actions and I felt he was being opportunistic because I had been drinking heavily.

“I was scared and this was exacerbated by the fact that I couldn’t get out of the car, I was concerned I was going to be raped.”

She added: “I think the driver was extremely surprised by my aggressive reaction.’

The father-of-three, who worked for cab firm Crescent Cars, was then arrested again and charged.

Source: The Standard

The company — founded by ex-cabbie Peter DaCosta — broke Manganese’s monopoly by converting Mercedes people carriers into cabs approved by the Public Carriage Office.

But now its future looks bleak after Eco City admitted its subsidiary One80, which owns the intellectual property to the crucial steering technology that adapts the Vitos to comply with London taxis’ strict turning circle rules, looks set to collapse into administration.

With no more Vitos at present being built after a lack of sales led to a pile-up of stock, Eco City admitted One80 cannot survive because of a “lack of production revenues” as well as an impending legal case against its 76.6% subsidiary by one of its licence holders.

“The group continues to experience challenging trading conditions requiring Eco City Vehicles to seek additional funding,” the firm said.

It added it was in talks with a potential backer but warned those negotiations “may or may not lead to additional funds”.

That uncertainty saw Eco City suspend its shares — which have plummeted by more than 80% in 2014 — at 0.3p “pending further evaluation of its position and future structure”.

Eco City only has one person left on the firm’s executive team, finance director Jonathan Moritz, who did not return telephone calls today.

In August, Eco City blamed San Francisco cab-booking app, Uber, for slaying London’s iconic taxis trade. It said that its collapse in revenues — which were down by a third in the six months of July — were “mainly due to the emergence of Uber”. But the Vito is also facing challenges from new taxis from Metrocab, which is making an electric cab, and Nissan.

Eco City’s struggles follow Maganese Bronze’s collapse in 2012, just two months after the Spice Girls sang and danced on top of five of its cabs in the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. The firm was later bought by China’s Geely, for £11 million, and restarted production.

Source: The Standard