Thursday, February 17, 2011

Taxi driver slammed by judge for not learning English after 20 years in Britain

An unlicensed taxi driver who had not learned English despite living in Britain for 20 years has been criticised by a judge for failing to 'integrate'.

Bangladeshi-born Zamal Uddin, 44, now faces a jail sentence and deportation for grabbing a passenger’s breasts after she got into his cab in Hoxton, east London.

The 44-year-old, who lives among one of Britain’s biggest Bangladeshi communities in nearby Bethnal Green, was yesterday found guilty of twice sexually assaulting the 26-year-old woman.

Uddin, who required a taxpayer-funded interpreter during the hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court, was told he would be liable for deportation after he finishes his sentence.

‘The authorities may consider your continued presence here undesirable,’ Judge Timothy King told him.

'These are serious matters and custody appears to be appropriate in this case,' said the judge.
'Also what troubles me, although it's not something that bears on sentence, [is that] he has been her for nigh on 20 years and he requires an interpreter.

'I suspect he lives within his own community and has never bothered to learn English.

'It is highly desirable that those who come to this country from abroad integrate,

rather than live isolated within their own community.'

Prosecutor Helen Owen had told the court: 'The taxi driver picked up a female who was intoxicated and then touched her breasts while she was in the cab.

'She got out of the cab and he followed her before pushing her against the wall and grabbing her under her clothes.

'She then screamed and he ran off.'

A day after the attack on October 23 last year, brazen Uddin was caught illegally touting for fares in nearby Dalston.

Uddin, who lived in a council flat after moving to the UK in 1992, admitted two charges of sexual assault and driving while disqualified.

He was remanded in custody pending sentence on February

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