Terror alert Uber driver didn’t have road licence

AN UBER driver who sparked a terror alert when he ploughed into a crowd of tourists at nearly 30mph had been driving around uninsured and without a licence for two years.

Juma Omar, 48, floored his Toyota Prius outside London’s Natural History Museum, then careered over the pavement, ran down pedestrians and sent others flying into the air.

He claimed the brakes had failed but was convicted of dangerous driving by an Old Bailey jury. The court heard Tanzanian-born Omar came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 1995 but was told to leave the UK in 1998. Omar from Barking, East London, met his wife shortly afterwards and they had four children together.

He applied for a replacement passport in another man’s name and used that identity to

pass his driving test. He got a job with the cab-hailing company using the fake documents and did not have insurance when he hit the pedestrians on October 7 last year.

He only halted when he smashed into two parked cars by which time 11 people had suffered non-life threatening injuries. Omar was wrestled to the floor by furious members of the public and a dozen armed police arrived. They feared another terror incident in the aftermath of the London Bridge and Westminster attacks.

Jailing him for 15 months the judge, Mr Recorder Oliver Sells QC, said: ‘It is no thanks to you that nobody suffered really serious harm.’

Investigators found Omar’s car was in perfect working order before the crash and could not have moved by itself. Those injured cannot claim compensation from Uber.

Police feared it was terror attack