ATIQUE: MARRIED GARAGE WORKER MUST DO UNPAID WORK AFTER GROPING DELIVERY DRIVER

A Kwik-Fit employee who left a female delivery driver in tears after greeting her by grabbing her breast has been ordered to sign as a sex offender for five years.

Muhammad Atique, 30, embraced the visitor and then groped her in a ‘clear, deliberate move’.

The shocked young victim then complained: ‘He grabbed my t**,’ Inner London Crown Court heard.

The married father-of-one, who claimed he did not touch the woman’s breast, was found guilty of sexual assault following a trial. His wife was in court supporting him throughout.

The judge, Mr Recorder Camden Pratt QC handed Atique a community order with 80 hours’ unpaid work and said he would have to sign on the sex offenders’ register for five years.

The judge said: ‘In a moment of madness you took advantage of the complainant.

‘You squeezed her breast.

‘That upset her at the time, and she was upset and in tears in the witness box.

‘It was an invasion of her personal space.

‘You should have apologised to her straight away.

‘You are a hard-working man and you have now lost your job.

‘You have a wife and a three-year-old child to support.

‘Your loss of work is a severe punishment to you and to them.

‘Any sexual assault is serious.

‘The offence is serious enough to warrant a community order.’

The trial heard how when Atique protested it was an accident, police were called and he attended the police station.

During his interview he changed his story to claim she was getting him back for making fun of her.

Andrew Vout, prosecuting, said the woman was ‘relaxed, outgoing, smiling’ when she first arrived at the site in Manor Park, east London, on the morning of February 15, this year.

Mr Vout said it was not her first time there and it was the ‘custom’ to hug.

‘She came into the office and Mr Atique, who was working in the office, went towards her and hugged her,’ said the barrister.

‘But as they parted, he reached out and deliberately grabbed her left breast.

‘The incident was captured on CCTV.

‘Shortly afterwards she complained about what he had done to another member of staff.

‘She was saying: ‘He grabbed my t**.’

‘Mr Atique said: ‘No, my hand brushed it.’

‘He was saying he touched it, but by accident.’

Atique, of Markhouse Road, Walthamstow, e London, denied sexual assault and was convicted by a majority of 11-1.

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