A COACH driver who indecently assaulted a 15-year-old girl on a school trip to Spain and was subsequently registered as a sex offender has fought off a High Court bid to deprive him of his driving licence.
Lawyers for transport secretary Alistair Darling expressed the minister's ''great concern'' after Tyne and Wear magistrates ruled that Geoffrey Snowdon could retain his passenger carrying vehicle (PCV) driver's licence.
But yesterday, Deputy High Court judge Nigel Pleming QC ruled that registration on the Sex Offenders' Register ''is not incompatible with holding a PCV licence''.
The case was being seen as an important test as to whether all PCV drivers who offend should be banned from driving coaches and buses while their names remain on the sex offenders' register.
Mr Snowdon, 46, from Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, was convicted of two offences of indecent assault on the girl in February 2000 and sentenced to concurrent sentences of 100 hours community service.
His name was added to the sex offenders' register for a period of five years.
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