Cabbie sentenced to life in prison for stabbing wife to death during a row over his gambling addicti
A cab driver from Greater Manchester has been jailed for life for ambushing and stabbing his wife to death. David Pawluk, 58, stabbed his wife Margaret Howlett, 63, multiple times after he found out she wanted to leave his name off of the deeds to their home. Pawluk, who had a heavy gambling habit, and had lost around £80,000 pound on his addiction, got into an argument with his wife and as she begged for his forgiveness he could be heard shouting ‘you f***ing liar`. Pawluk then stabbed his wife in the face and neck and left her for dead on the kitchen floor. The court heard that Pawluk attempted to take his own life and then fled the scene in his taxi. Two days later he handed himself into the police. When police arrived at their home, they found Ms Howlett on the kitchen floor still wearing her coat. Pawluk had waited in ambush for her to come home from spending the day with friends. A friend of Ms Howlett confirmed that only a few weeks before her murder, she told her that she no longer loved Pawluk and that she only had £4,000 left over from her £24,000 savings. According to a report in the Daily Mail, investigations revealed that Pawluk had cashed in £40,000 of his pension and was overdrawn by £2,000 and held credit cards which were in a total debt of £20,000.
The court heard how Pawluk and Ms Howlett met in 2016 and soon married in Cyprus the next year.
The couple had planned to sell Ms Howlett’s home and buy a bungalow together, but due to pawluk’s bad gambling habits, Howlett decided that it would be best to have their new home covered in just her name. It was heard that Pawluk was very controlling of his wife, who soon became detached from her friends. Pawluk’s ex wife also confirmed his serious gambling addiction and said he also was known for having a bad temper. She said that they were forced to remortgage their home four times to pay off debts he had built up. Pawluk admitted murder and was ordered to serve a minimum of 16 years and eight months before he would be considered for parole.
