22-year-old Finlay Wilkins alongwith his friend boarded Sohail Ahmed’s taxi in the early hours of 22nd December, 2014 in Melbourne.
The duo didn’t have enough money to pay for the taxi ride so they tried to run away from the taxi at a red light, just before their destination arrived.
While Wilkins’s friend got out, Wilkins got stuck between the seatbelt and the door. Ahmed panicked and feared losing a fare. He jumped on his accelerator with Wilkins’ still hanging near the door.
Wilkins fell hard and fractured his skull when Ahmed finally stopped 500 meters up the road. During this, Wilkins demanded Ahmed to stop the car and let him out while Ahmed asked Wilkins to get in and shut the door thrice.
Wilkins had to be rushed to the hospital and was placed in an induced coma. The Age reported that it took 7 operations to repair Wilkins’ fractured skull and he now has a stent placed inside his brain.
In court, Ahmed pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious injury.
While the Prosecutor argued that Ahmed's failure to stop, and the fact he knew Wilkins' door was open were aggravating features in the offence, Ahmed's defence claimed he hadn't meant to cause Wilkins injury and had just panicked.
County Court judge James Parrish accepted that Ahmed's offence was at the lower end of the moral culpability spectrum. The Judge sentenced Ahmed to a community corrections order plus two hundred hours of community work. He has also lost his license for two years.
