A taxi driver has been cleared of sexually assaulting a passenger.

Nadeem Khan, 40, wept in the dock as a jury at Hove Crown Court unanimously found him not guilty yesterday.

Mr Khan, a father-of-four, had picked a 22-year-old woman and her friends up from outside Occasions nightclub in Worthing on May 17 last year.

He drove them back to Burgess Hill but two got out in Hove after a row in the taxi.

Mr Khan, of Brittany Road, Worthing, said the woman, who cannot be named, was the last to be dropped off at her mother's home near the train station.

He said she went into the house to get the rest of the money for the £65 taxi fare because she did not have enough on her.

The jury was told that she told Mr Khan she would not have enough to buy things for her baby nephew the next day if she gave him the cash.

The woman said he then kissed and groped her despite her telling him to stop.

Mr Khan insisted she had hugged him and kissed him on the cheek after he agreed to let her pay the money the next day.

He told the jury: “I am a taxi driver, I would not do anything like that.

“If I had intended to do that I would not have done it outside her house.

“Her father, boyfriend or brother could have been there and come out.”

Raymond Terry, a taxi operator for Arrow Private Hire in Worthing, said he received two calls from Mr Khan about the incident just before 3am.

Mr Terry said: “In the second call he said she has got no money boss and is trying to hug me.

“He said to her to get off him.”

Mr Khan, who supports 14 Kashmiri orphans and helps to pay for their schooling, has no previous convictions or police cautions.

Judge David Rennie told Mr Khan after the verdict: “You are returned to your family and your job with your good name intact.”