MINDLESS MURDERS UPDATE
OLIVER PUGH FOUND GUILTY OF MURDERING PRIVATE HIRE DRIVER MOHAMMED ISTAKHAR
A lying teenager murdered his taxi driver in a plot to rob his car, then tried to pin it on his friend. Oliver Pugh, 19, got Mohammed Istakhar to drive him and his associate Luca De-Fazio out of Birmingham city centre to Braggs Farm Lane in Solihull, a remote country road near Earlswood and Dickens Heath. There he claimed he would fetch his fare for the trip from a nearby caravan where he was staying, but instead he produced a knife which he drove into the 44-year-old father’s chest. It was a pre-meditated plan executed to deadly effect in the early hours of November 29, 2022. It did not take long for ruthless Pugh to turn on De-Fazio, who was not found responsible for the killing by a jury. Once both were arrested by the police they gave completely different accounts of what had supposedly happened. De-Fazio, aged 18, attended Solihull Police Station voluntarily with his father, a support worker and a bag of clothes. He claimed when they first arrived in Braggs Farm Lane that he waited at the taxi, vaping, while Pugh went to the caravan. De-Fazio said Pugh came back holding two knifes and pushed one to his chest saying ‘take it’, to which he said he replied ‘leave it’. He alleged they got back in the taxi and Pugh sat in the front seat where he started waving his knife around and ‘touched’ Mr Istakhar who ran off, with Pugh
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In interview he claimed De- Fazio had accompanied him to the caravan from Braggs Farm Lane, and that it was De-Fazio who grabbed two knives from the vehicle and ‘sprinted’ back to the taxi. Pugh alleged De-Fazio chased Mr Istakhar then came back and handed him one of the knives. He accepted they drove off in the victim’s
Vauxhall
chasing him. De-Fazio recalled that as he followed he heard the driver plead: ‘I have a family, I have kids, please don’t hurt me’ before he caught up and saw him hand Pugh the keys saying ‘take them’. He claimed they left in Mr Istakhar’s car but at one point he had to get out and push after Pugh crashed it into a bush about 25 seconds after fleeing Braggs Farm Lane. De-Fazio said it was at that stage that he dropped the knife Pugh had given him earlier. He said Pugh later sent him social media posts saying someone had died, so he called his dad and decided to go to the police. De-Fazio told officers he felt he had no control over his own actions that night because he was ‘intimidated’ by Pugh, who fled to Worksop in Nottinghamshire after the incident. Following a manhunt, he was arrested there on December 1. Pugh remarked to the police: ‘Murder what’s all that about?’. After being told the allegation he added: “That’s bo****ks I’ve never stabbed anyone in my life.”
Insignia but said he had not found out the driver had died until a few days after the incident. He denied stabbing Mr Istakhar. Pugh told officers he had only gone to Nottinghamshire to see a friend and that he was intending to go the police voluntarily himself. During a trial at Birmingham Crown Court, a jury was shown CCTV which showed Mr Istakhar running away
from Pugh on
Braggs Farm Lane, with De-Fazio following some distance behind. They also heard from a witness who claimed she met Pugh at Rosies bar earlier in the night and that he had told her: “I’m going to rob a taxi.” Pugh from Solihull, was found guilty of murder and possession of a bladed article. He will be sentenced to life with a minimum term of imprisonment to
be
determined at a hearing on September 22. De-Fazio, of no fixed address, was cleared of murder but had admitted possession of a bladed article. He was sentenced to one month which he had already served whilst remanded in custody.
AUGUST 2023 PHTM
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