Mother of TikTok car crash murderer loses sentence appeal

Ansreen Bukhari, 49, was in the car with her daughter Mahek Bukhari as they and others sped after Saqib Hussain and his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin on the A46 in Leicester in February 2022.

It ended in a fatal collision for the two men, who were both aged 21 and from Banbury.

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Ansreen and Mahek Bukhari were both convicted of murder, with the then-22-year-old daughter receiving 31 years and eight months in jail from September 2023, reduced to a minimum term of 26 years and 285 days at the Court of Appeal last year.

The mother, Ansreen, was given at least 26 years and nine months in jail, which her lawyers said on Friday was “manifestly excessive”, but an appeal to reduce her sentence was refused by three judges.

Ansreen Bukhari and Tik Tok star Mahek Bukhari (Image: PA)

Lord Justice Jeremy Baker, sitting with Mr Justice Bryan and Judge Simon Hirst, said: “The appellant had many opportunities to prevent escalation of events leading to the deaths of the deceased.”

Christopher Millington KC, for Bukhari, said that she had been the target of blackmail, which had not been taken into account during the sentencing.

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He described how she had begun an affair with Mr Hussain, and afterwards he had demanded £3,000 for what he claimed he had spent on her during that time and refused to end the relationship ‘on good terms’.

He told the court: “Thereafter, and over a period of many, many weeks leading up to these offences, there was what we would categorise as a relentless campaign of blackmail and coercive behaviour from Saqib Hussain towards Ansreen Bukhari.”

On the day of the chase, the barrister said, Mr Hussain ‘ramped up’ the campaign and planned to show Bukhari’s family the ‘sexually compromising material he possessed’.

Bukhari then “got sucked into” a plan which led to “calamitous consequences” while she was “not regarded as being one of the prime movers in this by the trial judge”.

Prosecutor Daren Samat said that Bukhari may not have been a “prime mover”, but “she was an essential part of it”.

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He said: “She was part of the plan to lure the deceased to Leicester in the first place.”

In refusing the appeal, Lord Justice Jeremy Baker said: “We note that the appellant was indeed a central figure and the reason for these offences having taken place, and we are quite satisfied that the minimum term did properly take into account all the matters that have been advanced by Mr Millington.”

Two others were also convicted of the murders alongside the Bukharis, with a further three found guilty of two counts of manslaughter.