A 19-YEAR-OLD woman took the stand in the case of a taxi driver accused of false imprisonment.

Mohammed Afzal, 48, of Iffley Road, Oxford denies two counts of false imprisonment and two charges of actual bodily harm.

The charges relate to a cab journey taken by Megan Yates and Jade Randell on October 28.

In a police statement read out at Oxford Crown Court yesterday, Miss Yates alleged Afzal went in the wrong direction after picking the pair up in Oxford.

The court heard he told them he knew where he was going, but Rebecca Fairbairn, defending, said: “The girls started to shout at the driver, asking him to stop.”

She said Miss Yates told police Afzal became abusive and was asked to drive to a police station.

Instead, Miss Yates claims he “swerved off” from the police station with them still in the car, and injured them by braking suddenly. Miss Yates said: “I was on the floor in the taxi in a complete mess.”

The two were then taken by Afzal to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, the court heard.

Miss Yates – who was not wearing a seatbelt – denied she “exaggerated” her story to claim compensation from Afzal.

The court heard she made a statement to a clinical psychologist in which she said that she had “thoughts of young women being raped and abducted and that it’s happening to you”.

The trial continues.