Oxford taxi driver was ‘rushing to poorly wife’ when caught speeding

Saj Malik, who is also a city and county councillor for Cowley, was caught speeding in a Toyota Corolla on the Oxford Road through Tiddington near Thame on January 14.

The 57-year-old pleaded guilty to the offence at a hearing at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Friday, May 29.

Malik, of Mary Price Close in Headington, was issued with a £660 fine, ordered to pay £264 victim surcharge and his driver’s licence was endorsed with five penalty points.

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He told this newspaper that he considers himself a “pretty good driver” and has enjoyed a clean licence for more than 20 years.

But, he admitted, “the circumstances took the better of me”.

He said: “I said this to the court already, I am a very experienced taxi driver and in over 20 years I have never received any disciplines on my licence.

“Since November 2025, my wife has been struggling with heart problems and was rushed to the hospital three times during this period.

“On the day of the offence, she called me saying she could not breathe and her heart was beating very fast.

“I am aware that this does not excuse my actions, however my state of mind was clouded with concerns of my wife and mother of my children.”

The taxi driver is a county councillor for Cowley and retained his Temple Cowley seat at this year’s city council elections.

He has been a councillor for 22 years, having been first elected to Oxford City Council in 2004.

First elected as a Liberal Democrat councillor, representing the Cowley Marsh ward, he crossed the floor to join Labour in 2006.

But following his suspension from the Labour party in 2019, Malik is now sitting as an independent.

The court fine is not the first time the councillor has found himself in trouble, having been ‘formally censured’ by Oxford City Council for his behaviour in a debate about traffic filters.

Alongside fellow Cowley councillor Amar Latif, he was found to have behaved in an “intimidating, insulting, undermining and denigrating way” to officers and councillors by a standards committee in November.

The complaints both came from the Labour leader of the city council Susan Brown and deputy leader Ed Turner, and related to a full council meeting on March 18, 2024.

He said at the time: “This is the very first complaint against me, which I was very disappointed [about].

“I have been a member of this one council when one councillor called a female councillor a patronising cow. Nothing happened.

“There are many other [examples] I can give. The goalposts have changed.”