A MAN accused of hurling racist abuse at a cabbie before throwing pound coins through his taxi window has been acquitted.

Adam Winch of Shores Green, Witney, was accused of two counts of racially aggravated assault and racially aggravated harassment.

He was alleged to have launched a tirade of abuse at taxi driver Abdul Mobin after leaving a pub with another man on February 22 last year.

Mr Winch looked on in relief as the jury of five men and seven women cleared him of all charges at Oxford Crown Court yesterday just over an hour after retiring to discuss their decision.

During his trial the court had heard how the 47-year was at the Windrush Inn, Witney, with another man having attended a wake.

When they decided to leave at about 9.30pm the pub called for the taxi which collected them with instructions to take them to Oxford Hill, Witney.

Mr Mobin, a cab driver of some 10 years, had started his shift that night at about 6pm.

He also took to the stand during the trial and through a Bengali interpreter he told jurors how shortly after picking up the two men in his silver Ford Galaxy taxi one of the men, Mr Winch, had began verbally abusing him.

Mr Mobin claimed earlier in the trial: ““He asked me if I was Muslim and then he said you must be Muslim.

“He started swearing as well. He also asked me how many children I wanted to have.

“Jokingly I said 10. Then he started swearing at me.

“He used the f word, then he said you f*ing Muslim.”

Mr Winch had denied the charges and even told police during an interview that the conversation in the taxi had simply been ‘a heated discussion on religion’.

The other man who sat in the front seat of the taxi also took to the stand during the trial and corroborated Mr Winch’s side of the story. He was also cleared of assaulting in which he was alleged to have pushed Mobin’s neck.