Oxford BMW i8 driver sped off with two men on roof of car

Kaseem Ashraf, 25, went on to skip a red light, narrowly avoided hitting a group of pedestrians then forced a police officer to give up his chase when he looked down at the speedometer and saw his patrol car was touching 115mph.

Oxford Crown Court heard on Thursday (September 7) that both of the men thrown from the roof of Ashraf’s borrowed BMW i8 sports car in the early hours of September 28 last year had lost consciousness.

One was found out cold on the spot he fell to the asphalt in Park End Street, while a second managed to make it to Worcester Street car park where he later blacked out.

Of the two men thrown through the air, one is understood to have been now 20-year-old Michael Oluyitan.

in June, a jury trying allegations he and three others were involved in the murder of Alex Innes a month and a half after the incident with the BMW, heard that Oluyitan was taken to hospital after the accident – when it was discovered he had a blood clot on his lung.

During his trial, Oluyitan said that he had got on the roof of the BMW to take a photograph with an – unnamed – rapper. "About five minutes later the car started to move. The driver just floored it. He floored it fast enough for me to fly off the roof,” the teen told jurors. Oluyitan was later cleared of murder.

Opening the case against driver Ashraf on Thursday, prosecutor Victoria Forbes made no reference to either of the two men who had been sitting on the car roof having provided statements detailing the impact of their injuries.

She said that a police officer had spotted the defendant’s car doing what he estimated to be 100mph in a 30 zone.

The constable went after the high-powered German motor. Despite doing 115mph in his patrol car, he was ‘unable to catch up’, Ms Forbes said. The car was going so fast, the automatic numberplate cameras could not read the vehicle’s plate.

The police eventually caught up with Ashraf when he pulled up near the family home.

He told officers that he had switched cars with his brother and father, implying he was not the driver of the BMW. However, the female passenger exposed his lie, explaining she had been with him in the vehicle.

The driver tested positive at the roadside for cannabis but, when taken to the police station, refused to give a sample of his blood. Telling the officers he was Muslim, he claimed it was ‘against his religion’.

Park End Street, where the incident began Picture: Oxford Mail

Ashraf, of Fern Hill Road, Oxford, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to dangerous driving and failing to provide a specimen. He had a previous conviction for drug driving.

Sentencing, Recorder Joseph Hart said the defendant’s life had been a good one ‘materially’. He had not had to work and he had been provided with every comfort. However, a crippling cannabis addiction both hid and exacerbated mental health difficulties.

The judge described Ashraf as having ‘shown-off’ in his father’s ‘flashy’ BMW.

Imposing eight months’ imprisonment suspended for a year-and-a-half, he told the driver: “If you must show off, show this court and your family that you can get clear of drugs and never be in that dock again.”

As part of the court order, he must abide by drug and mental health rehabilitation requirements and was disqualified from driving for three years.

In mitigation, Ashraf was said to have sped away as he feared the scene on Park End Street could turn ugly. He knew of the pair on the roof by reputation, it was said.

Click here to sign up to the Crime and Court newsletter (Image: Newsquest)