Man who murdered mother of five in back of van and dumped her body in Smethwick 'like rubbish' jailed for life

A delivery driver who strangled a much-loved mother of five to death in the back of a van then dumped her body in a street “like a bit of rubbish” has been sentenced to life in prison.

Tanveer Singh, 32, will serve at least 28 years behind bars for the murder of Shara Millar, who was a sex worker at the time of her death at Singh’s hands in August last year.

An experienced judge called Singh a “manipulative and cynical young man” as he sentenced him to life in prison, having heard a statement from the family of Ms Millar describing her as a “strong and funny character” who would “give her last penny away if it would help someone”.

Singh, of West Bromwich, had picked up Ms Millar in a Mercedes Sprinter van in Babington Road on the Sandwell/Birmingham border in the early hours of Monday, August 11 then driven to Woodburn Road in Smethwick.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard earlier this month during a trial that Ms Millar, a 41-year-old mother of five, had fallen into a cycle of addiction and worked as a sex worker so she could afford drugs.

Once the van was parked in Woodburn Road, Singh and Ms Millar both got into the vehicle’s rear compartment. Within minutes Ms Millar was dead with severe head injuries and a fractured neck; Singh claimed that she had agreed to allow him to apply pressure to her neck and that she had tripped over in the van.

CCTV cameras captured the moment Singh dumped Ms Millar’s mostly naked body by the side of Woodburn Road amongst bags of refuse. He placed one of her trainers on top of her and poured AdBlue diesel exhaust fluid over her body before driving to his home in Leopard Lane.

The next morning he got up at 6.30am and checked the back of the van, which he had been borrowing from a colleague over the weekend, before going to work.

At around the same time in Woodburn Road, Ms Millar’s body was discovered by workers arriving for the start of their shifts in nearby industrial units.

Singh was arrested and denied murder, but he was found guilty earlier this month after a two-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

On Wednesday (May 27) he was brought back to the same court to be sentenced.

Rachel Brand KC, the trial prosecutor, read a statement from Ms Millar’s older brother Lathon Millar on behalf of her family, several members of whom had attended throughout the trial.

Ms Brand read: “Before drugs took hold of Shara she was such a bright and full-of-life person and would liven up any place she was in.

“If you didn’t see her you would always hear her.

“She was a very strong character [...] if Shara liked you, she would do anything for you.

“She just wanted to be loved the way she loved others, but sadly she didn’t always receive that.”

The statement said she had struggled at school, been kicked out of the family home when she was 15 and began using cannabis.

She met her first partner when she was 17 or 18 and went on to have three children in five years, then another two children with another partner after that relationship ended.

The statement said she always strove to do her best for her children and that at one stage “things were going well” before her drug use became known to authorities and she lost custody of three of the children.

Then “she had moved into harder drugs and seemed to lose her fight and give up”, the statement said. “This then resulted in losing her two other children.

“She decided all she could do was move away.”

Ms Millar moved to Lincolnshire and “became a sex worker to pay for her drug use”.

Her brother wrote: “We know she made some bad choices in her life. She fell into the horrible world of drugs which led her to be where she was on that night.”

Singh murdered her before she could learn she was a grandmother, Mr Millar wrote.

Addressing Singh, he wrote: “Why did you think Shara didn’t matter and nobody cared?

“You killed her and tossed her into the street like a bit of rubbish.

“How could anybody treat another human being in the way you did, and then try to cover it all up?”

Sentencing Judge Michael Chambers KC said he did not beleve Singh’s expressions of remorse to be “genuine”.

He described Singh’s treatment of Ms Millar before and after her death as “brutal and degrading”.

“I accept that you did not set out that night to take her life but that does little to diminish the seriousness of what happened.

“Having spent 20 minutes after killing her to decide what to do [...] you then decided literally to discard her body on the pavement where rubbish was strewn.

“[The next morning] you went to work as if nothing had happened.

“You are a manipulative and cynical young man.”

He sentenced Singh to life in prison, with a minimum term of 29 years minus the 286 days he has spent on remand.

Speaking for Singh at the hearing, Gurdeep Garcha KC said the defendant had integrated well into prison life since being remanded and has become a trusted prisoner.