IN THE NEWS
BOY WHO CUT MANCHESTER CABBIE’S THROAT GETS SIX YEARS AND EIGHT MONTHS
This is the horrific injury inflicted on a taxi driver when his throat was cut in a rob- bery by a boy of 17 who escaped with just £100. Luke Sheldon slashed 39-year old Munir Ahmad with a kitchen knife after booking his PHV and asking him to take him to an industri- al estate. As Mr Ahmad lay reel- ing on the ground with blood spurting from his wounds, Sheldon drove off in his Vaux- hall Vectra taxi and left him for dead. He was arrested after smash- ing the vehicle into another car. Mr Ahmad needed 14 stitches for the deep cut beneath his chin but
miraculously
escaped more serious injury after the blade missed his jugular vein. Police
discovered
drifter Sheldon from Middleton, Greater Manchester
had
robbed another taxi driver at knifepoint the day before. At Bolton Crown Court, he admitted causing grievous bod- ily harm, robbery and possessing a bladed article and was locked away in a Young Offender Institution for
six years and eight months. An order ban- ning his identity was lifted by the judge in the case. The court heard how Sheldon and another man, Stephen Hastie, 25, had robbed a taxi driver at knifepoint on November 14 last year after he picked them up from the Middleton area. He handed over his takings and ran off and the pair drove off in his car, which was crashed into two parked vehicles near- by. The two yobs then got out and walked off. At about 9.30pm on Tuesday 15 Novem- ber 2011, Mr Ahmad was outside the Har- bord pub, when Sheldon asked to be taken to the Stakehill Industrial Estate in Middleton. Once there Sheldon pulled out at a knife and slit Mr Ahmad's throat. The stricken cabbie staggered out of his car in a bid to escape but was caught by Sheldon who tried to stab him again. Mr Ahmad grabbed his arm to protect him- self
from a further
blow from the knife before the thug drove off in his car contain-
to run away but I Picture courtesy MEN
Munir Ahmad, 39, was cut with a kitchen knife by Luke Sheldon, 17, after making him drive to an industrial estate
ing the takings, a sat nav and three mobile phones.
crashed the cab into a parked car at the junc- tion of Kingsley Road and Stanycliffe Lane. Mr Ahmad
refused to work as a PHV driver in the town again and is now a taxi
Sheldon later
driver elsewhere. Mr Ahmad, a father of two from Rochdale, told the Manchester Evening News: “I’m pleased with the sen- tence but the fact is I think I'm lucky to be alive. “He slashed my throat and I got out of the car
slipped and he caught up with me on the floor. He tried to slash me again and I held his arm. I told him there’s money and a mobile phone in the car. I thought I was going to die. “I was shouting ‘some- one please help me save my life’. The doc- tor said I was very lucky to survive.” Mr Ahmad, who has driven a taxi for nine years, says he is so traumatised by the incident he initially thought that he would give up his job alto- gether. “It was such a big shock. I just want to have a safe life. There’s too much risk in this job. I’m too scared to work at night after what happened to me.” Mr Ahmad has been driving for Middleton- based private hire firm Diamond Cars for four years. Mr Ahmad’s boss Shafaq Khan said: “That knife could have killed him and I think that the guy wanted to kill him. He is very, very lucky. “Being a taxi driver is a very risky business these days. These people who attack taxi
drivers are cowards.” Hastie, of Middleton, admitted robbery and possession of a blad- ed article and was jailed for five years. Detective Constable Laura Stubbs, of Rochdale CID, said: “Both defendants car- ried out a knifepoint robbery on an inno- cent taxi driver who was out trying to earn a living. “Sheldon then fol- lowed this up with a violent
robbery on
another taxi driver the following day. “The driver suffered appalling injuries and was extremely fortu- nate not to have been more seriously injured or killed. “Both are clearly com- fortable
carrying
weapons and threat- ening innocent people in order to steal what amounts to relatively small amounts of cash and it is only right they have both been imprisoned. “We work closely with private hire companies to prevent incidents such as this from hap- pening, but when they do occur they are thor- oughly investigated and we will do every- thing we can to identify offenders and bring them to justice.”
PAGE 48
PHTM JULY 2012
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