• Oliver Pugh fatally stabbed 44-year-old Mohammed Istakhar in Braggs Farm Lane, Solihull, in the early hours of November 29 last year.
• Hours before the killing, Pugh told a girl he’d met that night that he was going to rob a taxi driver.
Oliver Pugh was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 27 years, for killing Mohammed Istakhar, a taxi driver, with a knife.
Just hours prior to the murder, the court had heard that while conversing with a girl outside a takeaway, Pugh had told her of his intention to commit a robbery on a taxi driver. This statement subsequently played a key role in the prosecution’s case against him.
The 19-year-old left the taxi driver for dead after hunting him down with a knife. As he lay unconscious in the street, Pugh proceeded to steal the victim’s taxi and took measures to conceal his actions. This included disposing of the weapon, removing the taxi badges from the car, and replacing the licence plate which he stole off another car.
Pugh whose criminal record includes receiving a caution for taking a knife onto a school premises aged 17, andconvictions for burgling three caravans, is said to have ‘regretted’ killing Mr Istakhar.
Co-defendant Luca De Fazio, who was also in the taxi with Pugh, was cleared of murder but admitted he had a knife for which he was sentenced to one month in prison. De-Fazio told the court he told Pugh ‘This is a good taxi driver, don’t do anything’. He also revealed that Mr Istakhar had begged Pugh to spare his life because he had a wife and children.
Passing sentence Judge Simon Drew KC said: “It is perfectly clear from what subsequently happened you were intent on causing trouble that evening. You engaged in repeated acts of unprovoked violence.”
“By the time you got in Mr Istakhar’s taxi and directed him to Braggs Farm Lane I have no doubt you intended to rob this vulnerable public servant at knife-point.”
“Anyone who stabs someone in the chest with a large knife as you did can have no other intent other than to kill. Furthermore when he managed to escape from the taxi and from you and run off down the road you hunted him down.”
“You caught up with him and despite the fact he was bleeding down the road you delivered at least one more serious stab wound. When he collapsed and fell you offered no support. Never did you seek any help.”
Mr Istakhar’s daughter reading a family impact statement to the court shared that her father came to the country aged 13 and worked as a factory worker as well as a taxi driver. Revealing the impact to the family she said:
‘Our lives will never be the same again. We are not living we are existing. Passing time day-by-day, minute-by-minute until we are reunited with the love of our life again.’
Detective Inspector Michelle Thurgood said: ‘This was a horrific attack on a father who was out working that night to provide for his family.’
‘Earlier that evening, Pugh had also assaulted other men for no apparent reason. He was clearly intent on causing harm to others that night…our thoughts remain with Mr Istakhar’s family and I hope this sentence can bring them some closure.’
