A sex trafficker shoved a pregnant woman into a taxi to be taken to a brothel – little did he know, the driver was about to save her life.
West Midlands Police have revealed bodycam footage from the night Tahir Mehmood called 999, after picking up a distraught Romanian woman.
Mehmood is now in line for a commendation from the police after his actions prevented her being forced into the sex trade against her will.
Watch the full incident in the video below:
The unnamed woman arrived at Luton Airport on February 16, 2018, after answering Robert Enescu’s advert offering UK work as a masseuse.
However, she was held hostage in a London brothel before being shepherded to Coventry, where she was forced to pose in lingerie for photos being posted online.
On February 20, Enescu, 26, called a cab for the woman to be taken to a pop-up sex den – but that would be the last time the trafficker would see the woman.
Talking to Birmingham Live about the ordeal, Mehmood said:
The man asked me if I could take her to St Christian Road. The lady got in the cab. When I go a little, the lady was upset. She was crying.
I said: ‘What’s up love? Why are you crying?’ I stopped the taxi and said: ‘Just tell me what’s happened.’
She said: ‘I don’t know here, I just came here four days before, come to here to do massage, but they tell me go to prostitution, to do sex, but I don’t want to do it.’
Mehmood, a married dad-of-two, called the police who then took her to the police station. Officers at the scene told the cabbie: ‘That’s good mate, well done.’
The next day, police raided the brothel and rescued several other suspected sex slaves. Enescu was then arrested at his home in Kingfield Road, Coventry.
However, despite having been found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison, the trafficker jumped bail and is still on the run – West Midlands Police is currently working with forces across the UK and Europol to bring him to justice.
As reported by Birmingham Live, Mehmood added:
I knew what to do because when I passed my test to be a taxi driver we were told everything, to help the customer, and to ring the police if you’re suspicious about something.
I’ve been a taxi driver since 2004 but nothing like this happened before. If I know somebody needs help, I will do. If somebody needs an ambulance I will call. I’m going to help, I’ll try my best to help. I told my wife and sons. They are happy about it.
Detective Inspector Wes Martin, who led the investigation through West Midlands Police’s Public Protection Unit, said Mehmood’s actions were ‘very honourable’ and he’s set to be referred for a commendation.
Coventry councillor Naeem Akhtar explained that the council provides training to taxi drivers so they are equipped to spot suspicious activity when picking up people.
As reported by Birmingham Live, Akhtar said:
I’m happy one of our drivers was brave and had the intelligence to see what was wrong and made a call to police in what is obviously a high profile case that has resulted in somebody getting convicted.
It sends a message that this is a horrendous crime we won’t tolerate…this driver could have just ignored what he saw and the victim would have ended up in a brothel and God knows how long she would have been there. Mr Mehmood’s actions saved her.
Detective Constable Clive Leftwich, the officer in charge of the case, assured much was done to safeguard the woman after being taken into protective custody, and praised her bravery in giving evidence against Enescu.
Leftwich told Birmingham Live:
She wanted Robert Enescu to be punished for what he’s done. She didn’t want him to do this to anybody else. She said she was concerned for the other girls she was staying with in London, because we weren’t able to find those actual ones.
To people like Robert Enescu, people are like a commodity. The judge put it well. Although it’s called human trafficking, there’s nothing more inhumane than treating people in this way.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.