A Minicab driver convicted of groping a female passenger has had his conviction quashed and will now face a retrial.

Tariq Mahmood, of Upper Green Street, High Wycombe, will be retried despite having nine days of his four-month sentence left to serve.

Last Wednesday, Court of Appeal Judge Lord Justice Mantell ruled Mahmood's conviction was unsafe as evidence which could have affected the jury's verdict had not been produced at the trial.

Mahmood was found guilty of indecent assault when he appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court on January 31.

The court heard how he had touched his female passenger's chest and knee when driving her home from a High Wycombe nightclub.

The court heard how the victim, referred to as Miss H in court, had called a cab with friend Miss E after leaving the club in the early hours of May 6 2002.

Miss E was dropped home first and Miss H continued with her journey home in the front passenger seat.

Lord Justice Mantell told the court: "At one point she mentioned the fact that the young man she was interested in at the nightclub had been dancing with someone else and she was not too pleased with life. The driver then said 'he doesn't know what he is missing' and promptly put a hand on her breast. She told him to stop but he put his hand on her knee and said 'you like it really'."

Lord Justice Mantell said there was powerful evidence against Mahmood but upheld his conviction appeal.

He added that he could not say with the necessary degree of certainty that Mahmood would have been convicted had all the evidence been presented to the jury.

Mahmood insisted his conviction arose as a result of mistaken identity.