Yahoo News Drug-fuelled spin in Audi left four children without a father, and a dad desperately searching for his son
On the night of September 29, 2021, Mohammed Waqas was concerned about his car. The battery had gone flat, and it needed charging.
He decided the best way to do with was to go for a quick drive. There list of reasons he shouldn't have was long.
The 33-year-old wasn't insured, the car didn't have an MOT, and he had taken drugs before getting behind the wheel. Waqas had even been advised he should not drive and should notify the DVLA after being diagnosed with epilepsy earlier that year.
Regardless, he would get behind the wheel.
It was a decision that would kill his best friend, leaving four children without a father and a grandfather desperately searching for his son.
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He drove the car from Nelson to Manchester to drop another friend off. In the passenger seat was Irslaan Nowkhaiz, his best friend of two years.
Irslaan had three children under three and his wife was newly pregnant with his fourth child. Devastatingly, he was yet to learn the happy news.
Neither of the men were wearing seatbelts as Waqas drove at 70 to 80mph in heavy rain, along the unlit stretch of the Eastbound M65, near Brierfield, at 1:30am. As the car travelled between junctions 11 and 12, it hit a patch of standing water and began to aquaplane.
The vehicle skidded off the carriageway onto an embankment where it hit a tree, flipped on its roof and slid back onto the carriageway. Both men were thrown from their seats with Waqas being found in the front of the car and his friend in the back.
Emergency services arrived and rescued Waqas from the vehicle. However Irslaan had suffered unsurvivable injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, prosecutor Antony Longworth told Preston Crown Court.
Waqas was taken to hospital where blood tests revealed he had nine times the legal limit of cocaine metabolite BZE in his blood. There were also traces of cocaine and cannabis below the legal limits.
Waqas, of Rhoda Street, Nelson, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving but entered a plea to causing death by careless driving under the influence of drugs, which was accepted by the prosecution. He also admitted driving without a valid insurance policy and driving a car without a valid MOT certificate.
His defence barrister, Charles Brown, said Waqas was deeply sorry and had apologised to his friend's family, who held no ill will towards him. He was severely affected by the death of his friend and had undergone counselling following the collision.
Mr Brown said Waqas had not driven the Audi for six months and planned to sell it, but had taken it for a drive to recharge the battery ahead of putting the vehicle in for its MOT. He had taken out a temporary insurance policy but it was void as he had not declared a previous motoring conviction.
As Irslaan's family received the terrible news he had been killed in the collision, his father Rashad Nowkhaiz began the frantic search for his firstborn son. He said he learned the news at 6am and spent the rest of the day trying to find out where his son's body was.
"That was the point my life came crashing down", he said. "No parent should have to learn this. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy."
Mr Nowkhaiz said his heart "shattered to pieces" but he had to hold his emotions together to bury his son. It was all the more tragic to know his grandchildren had been left without a father and his wife was expecting their fourth child, he said.
Irshaan's wife, Sahira Shamim, said her family feels incomplete and she lost her husband and sharing the joy of watching their children grow up, facing life's challenges together.
"Their father was to be their hero and do all the things a father should do", she said. Their oldest child has since started nursery and does not understand her father is gone.
Judge Philip Parry, sentencing, said: "You had consumed cocaine and cannabis prior to driving. The fact some of the cocaine had been metabolised but not completely tells me it had been relatively close in time or you had taken so much that some remained still.
"It is quite clear to me that you were at a heightened risk of suffering adverse side effects of having taken cocaine and cannabis at the time you were driving. Mr Brown submits that you were not affected in any way but I simply cannot accept that.
"I am sure your driving must have been affected by the drugs in your system but it is hard to say. You were driving at a speed that was inappropriate for the road conditions and driving when you had been advised not to. I am glad that you have reached out to the family and that they have accepted your apology. I accept you are remorseful and depressed."
In addition to a prison sentence of four years and three months, Judge Parry banned Waqas from driving for five and a half years and ordered him to carry out an extended restest if he wants to drive again.
