Mother of Leicester TikTok car crash killer loses sentence appeal
The Court of Appeal has rejected calls to reduce a sentence
Last updated 16 hours ago
The mother of a TikTok influencer involved in a high-speed car chase in Leicester that led to the deaths of two men will not get a reduction in her jail sentence, Court of Appeal judges have ruled.
Ansreen Bukhari, 49, was in the car with her daughter Mahek Bukhari as they and others sped after Saqib Hussain and his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin on the A46 in February 2022.
It ended in a fatal collision for the two men, while the Bukharis were both convicted of murder.
The daughter, who was 22 years old at the time of crash, received 31 years and eight months in September 2023, before this was reduced to a minimum term of 26 years and 285 days at the Court of Appeal last year.
The mother was given at least 26 years and nine months in jail, which her lawyers said on Friday was “manifestly excessive”, but this was refused by three judges.
Lord Justice Jeremy Baker, sitting with Mr Justice Bryan and Judge Simon Hirst, said: “The appellant had many opportunities to prevent escalation of events leading to the deaths of the deceased.”
Christopher Millington KC, for Bukhari, said that she had been the target of blackmail, which had not been taken into account during the sentencing.
He described how she had begun an affair with Mr Hussain, and afterwards he had demanded £3,000 for what he claimed he had spent on her during that time.
He told the court: “Having determined that she wanted to end the relationship, telling the deceased that she wanted to end it on good terms, the answer to that was plainly no.
“Thereafter, and over a period of many, many weeks leading up to these offences, there was what we would categorise as a relentless campaign of blackmail and coercive behaviour from Saqib Hussain towards Ansreen Bukhari.”
He said Mr Hussain kept up the “relentless and abusive messages”, which “ramped up” on the day of the chase.
The barrister added: “This was the day when he would carry out his threat to travel to the family home in Stoke and confront her and the family and, at the very least, show to her husband and members of the family the sexually compromising material he possessed and face the consequences of that.”
Bukhari then “got sucked into” a plan which led to “calamitous consequences” while she was “not regarded as being one of the prime movers in this by the trial judge”.
Prosecutor Daren Samat said that Bukhari may not have been a “prime mover”, but “she was an essential part of it”.
He said: “She was part of the plan to lure the deceased to Leicester in the first place.”
Mr Hussain was told “that if he wanted his money that he had to come to collect it from a boy in Leicester”.
The barrister added: “So without that, he would not be in Leicester.”
In refusing the appeal, Lord Justice Jeremy Baker said: “We note that the appellant was indeed a central figure and the reason for these offences having taken place, and we are quite satisfied that the minimum term did properly take into account all the matters that have been advanced by Mr Millington.”
Two others were also convicted of the murders alongside the Bukharis, with a further three found guilty of two counts of manslaughter.