Dubai: A driver followed a woman into the lift of the building where she lives and molested her, a court heard on Thursday.

The Tunisian woman had just returned from her workplace and was heading to the building’s lift when she saw a 24-year-old Pakistani driver standing behind the glass door in December.

As the man was wearing the security guard’s uniform, the woman opened the door for him.

The woman told the Pakistani to go ahead and use the lift and told him that she would not share elevators with strange men in the building at Discovery Gardens.

The Pakistani man told her to go ahead instead and use the lift while he pretended to wait outside.

Once the woman stepped into the lift and pressed on the desired button, the 24-year-old slipped his way quickly into the elevator as the doors were closing.

Records said as the elevator started going up, the man came closer to the woman, unzipped his pants, slid one hand inside his trouser and groped her with the other hand.

The woman screamed and called for help and the man jumped out and escaped when the lift stopped on the first floor.

The woman reported the matter to the police and the 24-year-old driver was arrested shortly after the incident.

Prosecutors accused the suspect of groping the woman.

When he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance, the suspect pleaded not guilty.

“I am innocent,” he told the presiding judge.

The woman claimed to prosecutors that the incident happened after she used her security card to open the door for the suspect.

“The residents in our building are given special security access cards that allow them to open the doors and enter … strangers are not allowed into the building. When I saw him standing outside, I thought he was a new security guard, as he was wearing a costume that guards usually wore. He refused to take the lift on his own and invited me to use it first. Then he squeezed his way in before the doors closed. He looked at me strangely and said, ‘I want you to help me’. At first, I thought he needed money and I told him that I did not have cash on me. Suddenly he came closer to me and opened his zipper. He put one hand inside and groped me with the other hand. He ran away when I yelled at him and the doors opened,” she testified to prosecutors.

Prosecution records said the suspect admitted during questioning that he groped the Tunisian woman.

A ruling will be heard on February 26.