Sydney, Dec 6 (IANS)

An Australian court has sentenced an Indian taxi driver to six years in jail, with a non-parole period of four years, for raping a minor girl last year.

County Court Judge Wendy Wilmoth said Nitin Rana, 30, was found guilty by a jury on three counts of rape, The Age reported Friday.

The judge said Rana had preyed on the teenager when the girl was in such an intoxicated state that she could not sit up straight in the taxi or even fasten her seat belt.

The teenager drank vodka at a friend's house. Later, the male friend dropped her at a railway station in Melbourne's east at about 1 a.m. Nov 4 last year, not realising she would be stranded.

The girl did not have money and could not give her home address. She could not get home as trains had stopped running for the night.

A group of good Samaritans gave Rana A$50 to take her home after finding her address on a card in her bag.

"The public is entitled to expect to be safe in taxis; parents should be able to trust their teenage children will be safe in taxis," Judge Wilmoth was quoted as telling Rana.

Rana raped her before dropping her home. She told her mother the next day that she was sexually assaulted by the taxi driver.

Rana, who belongs to a middle class family in Hyderabad, has a commerce degree. He also worked in several multinational companies in India before arriving in Australia in 2008 where he completed a diploma course in hospitality and management.

He was driving a taxi here for sometime to support himself and to save money to return to India.