An Uber driver in the United Kingdom has been jailed for five years after running over a passenger who vomited in his car following a night out.
According to the BBC on Wednesday, Hayadulla Turkmani, 53, was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving after a trial at Basildon Crown Court on Wednesday.
The court heard that Turkmani picked up plumber Michael Ashton, 28, and his partner, Sophie Carroll, in Hornchurch, east London, on September 26, 2025, after they had gone out for dinner and drinks with Ashton’s sister.
During the journey to their home in Langdon Hills, Essex, Ashton became sick and vomited on himself, prompting Carroll to fetch baby wipes to clean the car.
Carroll told the court that while she was cleaning, she heard Turkmani and Ashton arguing and told them to “leave it”.
The argument continued after the couple arrived home. As they walked towards their house, Ashton turned around, and CCTV footage played to the jury captured him shouting, “whoa, whoa, whoa”.
A neighbour told the court that he saw two people shouting at each other before the driver accelerated towards Ashton, who was standing about four or five metres from the car.
Prosecutors alleged that Turkmani accelerated towards Ashton at “incredible speed”, dragging him underneath the vehicle.
Ashton suffered a broken leg and a brain injury when his head struck the ground. He died from his injuries eight days later.
Turkmani, who was cleared of murder and manslaughter, told the jury that he had been “panicking and frightened” and mistakenly hit Ashton while trying to “escape” him after their argument.
Sentencing him, Judge Samantha Cohen said Turkmani had “failed to pay adequate regard” to Ashton’s whereabouts.
“You should have seen him, and you should have stopped before you hit him,” she said.
The judge said she was sentencing Turkmani on the basis that he did not know Ashton was in front of the vehicle, in line with the jury’s verdict.
“As you drove forward, you knew Michael was still in the close; you had no reason to think he’d returned home,” she said, adding that he had shown a “complete disregard for the danger you posed”.
Turkmani will serve half of his five-year sentence in custody, less the time already spent on remand, before being released on licence. He was also disqualified from driving for seven-and-a-half years.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Ashton’s mother, Jayne, described his death as an “unimaginable loss”, saying the family was “serving a life sentence” because of what happened.
His partner, Carroll, said the trauma of his death would remain with her forever.
“Living with the pain of missing Michael is unbearable,” she said.
Essex Police said Turkmani had “reacted angrily after Michael became unwell and this escalated into violence”, adding that Ashton’s relatives were “devastated by the needless loss”.