Taxi Driver Online

Fugitive taxi driver jailed for fatal Nottingham crash

5 October 2011 Last updated at 17:37

A man who fled to Pakistan a decade ago before he could be sentenced for causing death by dangerous driving has been jailed.

Naeem Imran Rashid, formerly of Newstead Grove, Arboretum, Nottingham, was arrested in June 2000 over the fatal crash near Wollaton Park.

In April 2001 the taxi driver pleaded guilty to causing 19-year-old Nadeep Singh Walia's death but then absconded.

The 34-year-old was jailed for nine years after being returned to the UK.

The court heard Mr Walia, a University of Leicester student, had been killed instantly when a Peugeot 405 being driven by Rashid crashed into the back of the Rover in which he was a passenger.

Rashid, who was over the legal alcohol limit, had been chasing the car through the centre of Nottingham following a nightclub altercation.

Six others were injured in the collision.

'Further untold damage'

Rashid was rearrested at Manchester Airport in April this year after he returned from Pakistan where he had been living with family. His solicitor said he returned voluntarily.

His return followed a decade of collaboration between Nottinghamshire Police, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the British High Commission in Islamabad and the Crown Prosecution Service.

At Nottingham Crown Court he was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years for causing death by dangerous driving, plus a further eight months for skipping bail.

Judge Michael Stokes QC said it was "one of the worst pieces of death by dangerous driving I have ever come across".

Retired Det Insp Stuart Kinton, who has dealt with the case since Rashid's initial arrest in 2000, said a lot of work had gone into tracking him down.

He said: "Over the last 11 years Naeem Imran Rashid has got married, raised children and basically lived the life of a free man, while back in England the Walia family were serving his sentence for him, feeling the consequences of his actions and laden with the knowledge that he was still at large.

"Rashid's sentencing hopefully marks the last rung on the ladder of the British justice system, and the point at which he will finally start paying for his crime.

"Hopefully this will bring some closure for the family, but I can only imagine the further untold damage done by Rashid's 11-year absence."

Source; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-no ... e-15187027

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returned voluntarily or thought the coast was clear after 9 years ?

Surely though it would have been more cost effective just to have sent him back to pakistan ?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

It's not about cost it's about justice

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I agree.

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Believe me, don't get Mercury X2

Doing the time so he can enjoy the NHS again when he's released, probably abroad where he was a hotel looked like a gulag camp compared with our free tv,meals,clothes,gym etc prison's.