CAB 'SEX ATTACK' Taxi driver accused of groping woman in his South Lanarkshire cab four weeks before he was due for deportationhttps://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/3 ... ambuslang/Atif Khokhar was booked on a flight back to Pakistan after losing a two-year asylum battle with the Home Office - but he didn’t board at Heathrow amid an 11th hour legal wrangleA CABBIE was accused of sexually assaulting a female passenger four weeks after he was due to be booted out of the country.
Atif Khokhar, 26, was booked on a flight back to Pakistan after losing a two-year asylum battle with the Home Office.
But he didn’t board at Heathrow amid an 11th hour legal wrangle and returned to Cambuslang, near Glasgow, to resume his taxi job.
He was arrested the following month after a woman claimed he groped her in his South Lanarkshire Council-registered cab.
Labour MSP Daniel Johnson blasted government officials and council chiefs who granted Khokhar’s private hire licence after his asylum application was rejected.
He said: “This shocking case raises serious questions about a local authority and its lack of communication with the Home Office.
“The public will rightly demand urgent answers on what has gone wrong and how it will be prevented from happening again.”
Prosecutors claimed Khokhar assaulted the woman then tried to grab her “breast under her clothing” in Glasgow.
He appeared at the city’s sheriff court last week but walked free after the alleged victim and a key witness failed to show.
The procurator fiscal called for an adjournment but the case was axed.
Khokhar arrived in the UK as a student in May 2011 but was nicked for working after his visa expired.
He was denied asylum in March 2016 and lost a legal challenge.
By January 2017 he had “exhausted his appeal right”.
But Khokhar had secured his taxi permit from South Lanarkshire Council the previous month.
It is understood there was no contact with the Home Office about his immigration status.
He was held at Harmondsworth Immigration Detention Centre near London pending his deportation.
The Home Office wrote to him on February 22 confirming his exit four days later.
But the cabbie, who was due to be escorted to the airport and on to the Lahore-bound jet, was cleared to head north of the border while lawyers considered further options in the case.
The alleged attack took place early on March 25 this year.
Council chiefs suspended his licence in April after cops penned a letter saying he was “likely to pose a serious threat to public safety”.
The Home Office said: “We will only remove people with no legal right to be in the UK.
“Further submissions or last minute injunctions can result in the cancellation of removal directions.”
A spokesman for South Lanarkshire Council said: “Mr Khokhar’s application was subject to the normal checks required at the time of his application.
“These did not indicate any valid reason not to grant a licence.”
Khokar declined to comment.
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