Toowoomba Uber driver Mohammad Zia Mohseni jailed for grabbing passenger

A man who assaulted a female teenager on his first night as a driver for Uber will serve time behind bars for his actions.

Mohammad Zia Mohseni was jailed for six months after assaulting a woman passenger on the first night as an Uber driver in Toowoomba.

A Toowoomba Uber driver who assaulted a teenage woman passenger on his first night on the job has been jailed.

The 19-year-old woman was distressed after an argument with her boyfriend when she rang for a Uber ride home from Toowoomba’s CBD about 12.45am, April 18, the city’s Magistrates Court home.

Mohammad Zia Mohseni arrived in a blue Mitsubishi Lancer and picked her up in Margaret St.

During the trip, they engaged in small talk, but when he persisted in saying he would keep her company she became concerned and started recording the exchange on her mobile phone, police prosecutor Leea Trewin told the court.

At the corner of Bridge and Mort Sts, the woman’s concerns grew to a point she opened the rear passenger door and went to get out of the car, but Mohseni had leaned over from the front seat and grabbed her by the upper arm.

Despite her screaming to let her go, the 30-year-old held onto her arm so hard his grip left bruising and ripped the sleeve of her top, Senior Constable Trewin said.

The woman eventually broke free and ran to a nearby house and banged on windows, screaming for help.

As the home occupant called police, Mohseni had closed the door and driven off, Snr Const. Trewin said.

Police took photographs of the woman’s bruises for which she was treated at Toowoomba Hospital, she said.

Spoken to by police on April 25, Mohseni had made full admissions after being shown the woman’s statement and listening to her recording of the incident, she said.

Submitting for a jail term, Snr Const. Trewin said the driver had taken advantage of a “young, vulnerable woman”.

“It’s a complete breach of trust from someone in his position,” she said.

Mohseni pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm.

His solicitor Stuart Percy said his client, who arrived in Australia at age five, a refugee from Afghanistan, had no criminal history at all and lived in Gatton with his wife and baby daughter.

This was his first night as an Uber driver but he had lost that job as a result of the incident and was working on farms, he said.

His client instructed he didn’t mean to harm the woman and had tried to calm the situation but panicked, he said.

Mr Percy submitted for a good behaviour bond, which Magistrate Kay Ryan didn’t agree with.

“You are kidding me, Mr Percy,” Ms Ryan said.

“This is way out of range of a bond.”

Ms Ryan sentenced Mohseni to six months in jail but ordered he be released on parole on January 21 after having served one-third of the term.