‘Most wanted’ driver who killed Deliveroo rider before fleeing to Austria is jailed

Europol helped detectives track down plumber who stabbed delivery worker in road row

Smith was convicted of murder (PA)

A plumber who stabbed a delivery driver to death before fleeing the country has been sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in jail.

Nathan Smith, 28, was jailed for life after being convicted of murdering 30-year-old Algerian Takieddine “Taki” Boudhane.

The day after the murder, Smith fled the UK and initially travelled to Austria, where he remained in hiding, but also travelling to Switzerland and Portugal.

He was placed on Europol’s “most wanted fugitives” list and officers from the Met’s serious crime manhunt team, known as Op Artemis, worked alongside detectives leading the murder investigation to track him down.

An arrest warrant was issued and he was met by British officers in Lisbon, who escorted him back to the UK in June last year.

Smith claimed he acted in self-defence after Mr Boudhane attacked him with a screwdriver during a road rage row in in Finsbury Park, London in January 2020.

But he was unanimously convicted of murder by an Old Bailey jury.

The Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft QC, said: “The sentence I pass can never equate to or replace a life lost.

“Another life lost to death through the use of a knife on the streets of London.”

The judge said Smith claimed he had been on his phone talking to a woman he was due to meet while driving a van.

“It may be the case that you manoeuvred your van in a way that irritated Takieddine.

“There is clearly a verbal altercation between the two of you.”

Takieddine Boudhane with his mother (PA)

The judge said Mr Boudhane at one point turned his back to walk away. “You then ran at him.

“You inflicted what was to be the fatal wound. On the CCTV you can be seen to use the knife and make contact with him on a couple of occasions. Having stabbed him, you flee the scene in the van.”

“It is clear to me that you were the aggressor. While there was some posturing by Takieddine, he does not approach or threaten you.

“During the final sequence of events Takieddine was not holding the screwdriver in an open hand or brandishing it.

“The next day you flee... using your brother’s bank card.

“[You] remained at large for around 17 months.”

Mr Boudhane, who had been in the UK for about three years, was working as a Deliveroo driver when he was killed.

His mother, Saide Boudhane, said in a victim impact statement that a minor road traffic incident changed her family’s lives for ever, adding: “‘This man continued to torment my family for refusing to accept responsibility.

“He forced us to endure a crown court trial where my son watched his brother’s murder frame by frame... on CCTV.

“Even then he claimed he felt like he was the victim and showed no remorse to my family.

“Not once did he say he was sorry for what he had done - only that he had suffered PTSD whilst on the run. On the run for murdering my child.”