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A taxi driver who lost his licence after he secretly taped himself having sex with a woman passenger failed in a legal bid to win it back.

Nazakat Ali made a 90-minute recording on his mobile phone of him romping with the 30-year-old at her home in Ormesby last August.

The 49-year-old said that she booked him to take her at 2am to an all-night garage where she bought two bottles of wine and sandwiches.

She asked him to carry her bags into her house and she invited him to stay, but he refused, Teesside Crown Court heard .

He continued working until 4am and he returned to her address where she had left the door unlocked for him.

Mr Ali, who said that his marriage ended two years ago after 21 years, told a judge that he decided to tape the encounter “as a precaution”.

She invited him back the next day. He arrived in the afternoon intending to take her out, but she said that she was tired.

She later made a rape complaint to the police but the investigation was dropped after he gave them the recording.

But the police sent a report to Middlesbrough Council and his licence was revoked last November.

Louise Harrison, representing the authority, said it was accepted that it was a recording of consensual sex.

But she told the court that Ali had taken advantage of a vulnerable woman who was clearly very sleepy or intoxicated.

She said taxi drivers had to be trusted to behave responsibly with drunken women passengers or women with mental problems.

'The recording was a precaution - and I’m glad I made it'

Ali, a private hire taxi driver since 2007 in Middlesbrough , said he did not consider that she was still a passenger because he had logged off her trip and they had sex after he had finished work for the night.

He said women occasionally offered sexual favours as part of his job.

“I told the police that I did not think I had broken any law," he added.

“The recording was just a precaution - and I’m glad I made it because I might not be standing here now.

“But I would not have jeopardised my livelihood for what happened.

“Over the years I have driven many ladies, drunken ladies, and nothing has ever happened apart from this allegation.”

Read more Read all the latest court cases from around Teesside

John Hodgson, senior licensing officer for Middlesbrough Council, said that a 17-year-old girl lodged a complaint against Ali in 2013 that he had asked for her phone number.

Mr Hodgson said Ali later rang her home but she did not answer.

Stewart Haywood, defending, said: “I accept that his conduct was in some way naive but it should not be held to his detriment.

“There have been two malicious complaints against him.

“I would submit that he is a fit and proper person to go back and do taxi driving.”

Ali, of Hall Drive, Acklam, Middlesbrough , appealed against the revocation of his licence on November 2 by the council’s licensing committee for Private Hire Vehicle Licences.

Judge Shaun Morris said he was not a “fit and proper” person to be a taxi driver.

He lost his appeal against a decision by Teesside magistrates to uphold the council’s original decision.