Driver admits killing teenager in car crash shortly after his release from Dubai prison

A driver has admitted killing a British teenager in a car crash shortly after the 19-year-old had been released from a Dubai prison sentence for having sex with a 17-year-old girl.Marwaan Mohamed Huseen, 20, was attempting to get away from pursuing Metropolitan Police officers when he crashed a BMW into a lorry, killing 19-year-old Marcus Fakana, who was one of the vehicle’s passengers.A second passenger in the vehicle was also badly hurt in the crash, which happened in the early hours of 3 October last year in Tottenham, north London.At Wood Green Crown Court on Friday, Huseen appeared by video link from HMP Pentonville to plead guilty to causing the death of Fakana by dangerous driving. Huseen, who admits being uninsured and unlicensed at the time, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving to another of the passengers in the BMW.The crash happened just three months after Fakana, from Tottenham, was set free from a prison in Dubai. He had been with his parents in the United Arab Emirates in the summer of 2024 when, at the age of 18, he had a holiday romance with a 17-year-old girl from London.The teenager spent about a year in prison before being freed thanks to a royal pardon from the Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.At the time of the fatal car crash, the Met police said officers were attempting to stop a “vehicle of interest” in Pretoria Road, Tottenham, and after a short pursuit they temporarily lost sight of the vehicle. When officers then drove in to The Roundway, they found the vehicle had been involved in a crash.“Police were on patrol at around 12.52am when they attempted to stop a vehicle of interest on Pretoria Road, N18,” Scotland Yard said in a statement. “After pursuing the vehicle for around 60 seconds, police temporarily lost sight before locating the vehicle on The Roundway, N17, where it had been involved in a collision.“Officers were supported by the London Ambulance Service and the London air ambulance, and a 19-year-old man was taken to hospital where he sadly died. He has since been named as Marcus Fakana from Tottenham.”Huseen, of Tottenham, has been in custody since his arrest at the scene of the crash. Judge Emma Deacon KC remanded him back into custody on Friday after the guilty pleas.He is due to submit a basis for his guilty pleas and a sentencing date will be set at a hearing on 27 February. Huseen did not enter a plea to a third charge of driving without insurance and a licence, but the court was told he admitted that he did not have a valid licence or insurance at the time of the crash.