FERGUS:LONDON BUS DRIVER TORTURED IN CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY

A London bus driver was abducted and put through a terrifying torture ordeal in a case of mistaken identity, a court heard.

The man was bundled into a van, beaten and burnt with a cigarette lighter while his captors made death threats and demanded a £10,000 ransom.

The attackers dialled the last number their hostage had called, saying he would be stabbed unless the money was dropped off at Honor Oak Railway Station in southeast London.

The victim eventually fought off the kidnappers, fleeing to a nearby pub where doormen called the police, Inner London Crown Court heard.

Following the incident, the victim helped police produce an ‘e-fit’ image of kidnapper Michael Fergus and later picked him out in an identity parade.

Officers also used mobile phone records to place the men at the scene of the crime.

Fergus, 25, and cousin Taariq Fagan, 20, now face jail for abducting the man in Forest Hill late on September 10 last year.

A third man, 28-year-old Mohammed Bangura, was cleared of all charges following a trial.

James Dawes, prosecuting, told how Fergus and Fagan kidnapped the bus driver, who cannot be identified, in Forest Hill, southeast London.

He had driven home from his girlfriend’s and was about to get out of his grey VW Golf when Fergus approached, wearing a hat and hood.

Fergus grabbed his gold chain, but when the victim fought back he was attacked by other gang members.

They hit him on the head, pressed a gun to his back, and ordered him to ‘walk’.

A friend who had pulled up in another car nearby, managed to escape and call police, but the victim was quickly bundled into a blue Suzuki Rascal van.

Mr Dawes said the bus driver had been targeted in a case of mistaken identity over a drug debt – but his captors ignored his protestations of innocence.

He said: ‘During the course of his imprisonment he was tortured and threatened with death.

‘As he was being driven, he was punched and kicked by the people in the van and had cigarettes extinguished on him.

‘They used a lighter on his ears.’

Fagan was also found guilty of robbing supermarket delivery driver Derek Baskett two months later on November 26.

Mr Baskett was ambushed as he unloaded goods at a branch of Sainsbury’s at around 7am, with Fagan making off with cartons of cigarettes.

All three defendants were cleared of a separate offence in which they were said to have used a postman’s uniform to blag their way into a retired couple’s house in Rotherhithe, south London.

The prosecution had accused them of wielding a replica handgun and demanding cash from a safe on September 24 last year.

Fagan, of Dunstans Road, East Dulwich, southeast London, was found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and blackmail over the abduction and separately of robbing the delivery driver.

He was acquitted of aggravated burglary and possessing an imitation firearm.

Fergus, of White City Close, White City, west London, was convicted of kidnapping the bus driver but  cleared of false imprisonment and blackmail.

Bangura, of no fixed address, was cleared of kidnap, false imprisonment, blackmail, aggravated burglary and possession of an imitation firearm.

Fagan and Fergus now face sentence on September 2.
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