Taxi driver's throat cut by boy, 17, during robbery in which thug escaped with car and just £100Luke Sheldon slashed the throat of Munir Ahmad, 39, with a kitchen knife
Teenage thug is jailed for seven years after escaping with takings and taxi
This is the horrific injury inflicted on a taxi driver when his throat was cut in a robbery 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 private hire cab and asking him to take him to an industrial estate.
As Mr Ahmad lay reeling on the ground with blood spurting from his wounds, Sheldon drove off in his Vauxhall Vectra taxi and left him for dead. He was arrested after smashing the vehicle into another car.
Mr Ahmad needed 14 stitches for 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 bodily harm, robbery and possessing a bladed article and was locked away in a Young Offender Institution for six years and eight months. An order banning 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 nearby. The two yobs then got out and walked off.
At about 9.30pm on Tuesday 15 November 2011, Mr Ahmad was outside the Harbord Harbord pub, when Sheldon asked to be taken to the Stakehill Industrial Estate in Middleton.
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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 himself from a further blow from the knife before the thug drove off in his car containing the takings, a sat nav and three mobile phones. Sheldon crashed the cab into parked car at the junction of Kingsley Road and Stanycliffe Lane.
Mr Ahmad later refused to work as a car driver in the town again and is now a taxi driver elsewhere.
Mr Ahmad, a father of two from Rochdale, said: 'I'm pleased with the sentence but the fact is I think I'm lucky to be alive.
'He slashed my throat and I got out of the car to run away but I 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 "someone please help me save my life". The doctor 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 he would give up his job altogether.
'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 bladed article and was jailed for five years.
Today Det Con Laura Stubbs, of Rochdale CID, said: 'Both defendants carried out a knife point robbery on an innocent taxi driver who was out trying to earn a living.
'Sheldon then followed this up with a violent robbery on another taxi driver the following day.
'He suffered appalling injuries and was extremely fortunate not to have been more seriously injured or killed.
'Both are clearly comfortable carrying weapons and threatening 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 happening, but when they do occur they are thoroughly investigated and we will do everything we can to identify offenders and bring them to justice.'
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