THREE brothers who attacked a taxi driver four years ago were sentenced to a total of 47 months in prison.

Surfraz Nawaz, Karvan Nawaz and Arfaan Nawaz, all of Netherwood Road, Headington, and Amayad Bokhari, of Howard Street, East Oxford, were sentenced at Oxford Crown Court.

The four men admitted two counts of actual bodily harm and one count of theft on November 28, 2011, after attacking taxi driver Usman Khan.

Prosecutor Walton Hornsby said Mr Khan, who works for Royal Cars Private Hire, received a call asking him to pick someone up at Collingwood Road, Risinghurst, but nobody was there.

He said the taxi driver was then called and given directions to a church, which he could not find, but later gave up after thinking it was a prank call at about 4am.

Mr Hornsby said Mr Khan stopped by Headington Hill’s Shell garage, where he met fellow taxi driver and friend Mohammed Saleem, and was called by Surfraz Nawaz, who became angry while demanding to know where the taxi driver was.

Mr Hornsby said Surfraz Nawaz, who was speaking in Punjabi, appeared to be “incandescent that he was not picked up”.

He added: “The Crown are not able to explain the subsequent behaviour of Surfraz Nawaz and indeed the other three defendants.”

Mr Hornsby said the four defendants then appeared to be at the Headington Hill garage, where Surfraz Nawaz got into Mr Khan’s taxi and started “punching him hard in the face”.

He said the other three defendants then opened the vehicle’s door and also started “laying into him”, trying to drag him out of the taxi, but Mr Khan resisted and “clung” to it.

The prosecutor said Mohammed Saleem, who had shouted at the four defendants to stop, was told to drive the taxi to nearby Osler Road where they punched and kicked Mr Khan.

Mr Hornsby said Mr Khan’s mobile phone and money, which had fallen from his pocket, was picked up by one of the four defendants before a “dazed and dizzy” Mr Khan ran away and called 999.

Mr Khan was left bleeding from the nose and the mouth, with bruising over the left and right ears.

In his victim impact statement, Mr Khan said he gets “nervous” when working at night and worries about passengers in his taxi.

Defence barrister for Surfraz Nawaz, Alistair Grainger, said his defendant had a “turbulent existence” at the time of the incident.

Judge Patrick Eccles said: “All four of you were involved in a determined and persistent attack on Usman Khan.”

Surfraz Nawaz, 33, was jailed 23 months, Karvan Nawaz, 27, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and Arfaan Nawaz, 30, was sentenced to 10 months.

Amayad Bokhari, 19, was handed a three-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, and was also ordered to carry out 80 hours unpaid work.