SHAME SHAME
BRADFORD CABBIE AND HIS TWO SONS JAILED FOR TOTAL OF NEARLY 30 YEARS OVER DRUGS PLOT
A cabbie and his two sons have been jailed for a total of almost 30 years for their roles in a drugs plot which saw a man kidnapped off a Bradford street and beaten and interrogated. The Telegraph and Argus report that in the dock at Bradford Crown Court on 23 December were Ahmed Butt, 27, from Bradford; Haris Ali, 28, of Oldham; and their father Zulfiqar Ali, 47, also from Bradford. All three pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs part-way through their trial, prosecutor Chris Moran said. Butt and Haris Ali also admitted kidnapping the man on May 1 last year. Mr Moran told the court that Butt had asked to meet the victim and he had sounded angry. CCTV footage showed the man’s car being boxed-in by a white VW Golf and Butt getting out and taking the ignition key. He and Haris Ali then tried to force him out of the vehicle. The man was kicked and then pushed. He ran off but was
chased, caught, pulled to the ground and kicked in the face, Mr Moran said. A passer-by called the police reporting someone had shouted: “Get him in the car,” before he was dragged by Butt into the Golf. Haris Ali was also in the car and their father turned up in a black vehicle. The man was forced into a house where he was repeatedly questioned about stolen drugs valued at £300,000. He kept denying any involvement in the theft but he was forced back into the Golf and driven for about 20 minutes with a hood covering his head. He was then beaten at another address
where “multiple people” were present. Zulfiqar Ali was at the house and questioned him about the whereabouts of the drugs. The man was then freed. He had suffered bruising to his face, a sore head and ribs and grazing. Mr Moran said that two addresses asso- ciated with the family were searched by the police. Items seized included £1,655 in cash, a Samurai sword, balaclavas, a machete, two knuckledusters, a hammer, an air rifle and a stun gun. Concealed in the kitchen ceiling at one house was a bag containing multiple knotted bags of cocaine with a street value of £28,300. Judge Hatton said: “The whole situa- tion related to the warehousing of large quantities of Class A drugs.” Zulfiqar Ali was jailed for seven and a half years. Butt and Haris Ali were imprisoned for four and a half years for kidnap and six and a half years for the drugs conspiracy, to run consecutively, adding up to 11 years each.
RUNCORN CABBIE CRASHED INTO TEEN ON BICYCLE AND THEN DROVE HOME AFTER DRINKING
A taxi driver, who had drunk beer, broke a teenage cyclist’s collarbone in a crash, before driving off. Gary Jacques, 51, from Runcorn, later claimed he thought the boy must not have been injured as he saw him standing in his rear mirror. Joshua Sanderson-Kirk, prosecuting at North Cheshire Magistrates’ Court, said police were called after a teenager had been “knocked off his bike by a taxi” and the vehicle had continued on. At the scene, officers found a 14-year- old boy “sitting on a wall clutching his shoulder, and witnesses who said the car involved was a taxi with the firm Apec.” The teenage cyclist was
taken to JANUARY 2022
hospital and diagnosed as having suffered a broken collarbone. Police visited the taxi company, which put out two alerts to its drivers for someone to come forward. Jacques responded to the second request, but said he couldn’t head to the office as he had “consumed alcohol” since returning home. When police visited him, Jacques test- ed positive for 51 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath - above the legal limit of 35, and admitted to having been the driver. Mr Sanderson-Kirk said Jacques, in his basis of plea, said he had “looked in his rear view mirror and saw (the boy) was
standing and didn’t think any injury was caused” but now accepted “that’s not the right course of action” and “he had been drinking at the time of the accident”. Jacques later pleaded guilty to failing to stop at the scene of an accident, driving without due care and attention, and driving with excess alcohol, in con- nection with the collision on March 29. Magistrates, who called the offences “very serious matters”, handed Jacques a 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work and banned him from driving for 14 months. She warned him he could go to prison if he breaches the disqualification.
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