Skip to main content

Man convicted of driverless car terror plot in UK

A man has been found guilty in a UK court of plotting to use a driverless car for terrorism. Farhad Salah was convicted at Sheffield Crown Court after prosecutors argued that he was planning to put an explosive device in a vehicle which could then be controlled remotely. He will be sentenced on 24 July after the jury found him guilty by a majority of 10 to two. His co-defendant Andy Star was found not guilty of the same offence at the trial. It is the second time that both men, who are Iraqi nationals,
July 16, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

A man has been found guilty in a UK court of plotting to use a driverless car for terrorism.

Farhad Salah was convicted at Sheffield Crown Court after prosecutors argued that he was planning to put an explosive device in a vehicle which could then be controlled remotely.

He will be sentenced on 24 July after the jury found him guilty by a majority of 10 to two.

His co-defendant Andy Star was found not guilty of the same offence at the trial.

It is the second time that both men, who are Iraqi nationals, have been tried on terrorism charges – a different jury was unable to reach a verdict on them last year.

Prosecutors said that Salah sent a Facebook message saying: “My only attempt is to find a way to carry out martyrdom operation with cars without driver.”

Salah (who lived in Sheffield) and Star (who had a chip shop in Chesterfield) were arrested in police raids on their homes in December 2017.

Counter-terrorism police said Salah was a “very real risk to the safety of the public in the UK” but no intended target has been identified.

Related Content

  • VMS can counter small screens’ big problems
    June 9, 2015
    Lacroix Trafic’s Steve Collins believes the improving trends in road safety could go into reverse unless authorities make full use of the latest LED technology to meet drivers’ information needs. Road authorities and vehicles manufacturers could and should be far more active in countering some of the transportation industry’s major problems, according to Steve Collins export sales director at Lacroix Trafic.
  • Two wheels good
    June 25, 2018
    As cycling becomes an increasingly popular method for commuting and recreation, what moves are afoot to keep the growing numbers of cyclists safe on ever-more-busy roads? Alan Dron puts on his helmet and pedals off to look. It would have seemed incredible just a decade ago, but cycling in London has become almost unfeasibly popular. The Transport for London (TfL) June 2017 Strategic Cycling Analysis document noted there were now 670,000 cycle trips a day in the UK capital, an increase of 130% since 2000.
  • Auckland reduces airport journey times
    April 16, 2018
    Getting from the centre of Auckland to the city’s airport used to be fraught with unwanted stress for passengers – but a new system combining radar, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is smoothing things over. Andrew Stone investigates. Struggling to cope with steady growth in passenger numbers and the costly traffic congestion which that can entail, New Zealand’s Auckland International Airport has deployed an innovative system that is smoothing traffic and passenger flows. The same system is also offering new, data-led
  • Report: wireless technologies leave vehicles exposed to hackers
    February 11, 2015
    New standards are needed to plug security and privacy gaps in cars and trucks, according to a report by US Senator Edward J. Markey. The report, Tracking & Hacking: Security & Privacy Gaps Put American Drivers at Risk and first reported on by CBS News’ 60 Minutes, reveals how sixteen major automobile manufacturers responded to questions from Markey in 2014 about how vehicles may be vulnerable to hackers, and how driver information is collected and protected. The responses from the automobile manufacturer