Nigerian supply driver jailed in UK for working over bike owner who spat at him

Crime

By Linda Ikeji
10 November 2026, 8:35 am

A Nigerian van driver who was delivering blood to a hospital has been jailed for 3 and a half years after intentionally working over a bike owner who spat at him.

According to the BBC, Mark Okotie, 44, knocked the person off his bike in New Cross Road, Lewisham, throughout the night rush hour on 20 March 2024, leaving him with a number of fractures.

Woolwich Crown Court heard Okotie had moved his van into the left lane “seemingly without looking” and got here near the bike owner. At the following set of site visitors lights, the person spat in the direction of the van, and it went via the open driver’s window.

Okotie, from Southwark, was jailed for 3 years and 6 months, having been discovered responsible of inflicting grievous bodily hurt with intent after a trial earlier this month.

Dashcam footage from contained in the van, proven to the court docket, captured Okotie turning the steering wheel sharply, sending the bike owner below two of the car’s wheels.

The sufferer wanted “numerous screws and plates” in his pelvis and femur. In an announcement launched by the Met Police, he mentioned he had been an lively particular person, however his accidents had stopped him from jogging and doing different bodily actions.

Sentencing, Recorder Neil Haythorne informed Okotie: “In a moment of extreme road rage, which appears entirely out of character from what I have heard about you, you caused serious injury to a cyclist.”

Mandisa Knights, mitigating, mentioned Okotie, a father of eight with a one-year-old grandchild, mentored younger folks to maintain them away from the violence he had been uncovered to when he was youthful.

She mentioned “a momentary relapse in retaliation” had led to “grave consequences” and he would now must face the boys he had mentored and admit what he had achieved.

Det Insp Steven Andrews, from the Met, mentioned Okotie had been carrying blood “destined for hospital patients in need”.

“Instead of continuing a journey intended to support potentially life-saving treatment, he chose to place someone else’s life at risk,” Andrews mentioned.