THREE “feral” teenagers locked up for their role in a series of “wicked” street robberies committed last Christmas in Bradford city centre have been made the subject of Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs).

The youths, who were sentenced earlier this month, were involved in a spate of offending over a six-day period, targeting victims for high-value mobile phones and cash cards.

Those attacked were repeatedly punched and stabbed, with one man shot in the face with an air gun.

The gang could not be named on sentence due to their age, but having had CBO’s imposed, can now be identified as Hamayu Tanveer, 17, Mohammed Zubhir, 16, and Haroon Iqbal, 15.

Bradford Crown Court was told that Tanveer was involved in five robberies, with Zubhir and Iqbal both involved in two incidents separate of each other.

In one attack, on Christmas Day last year, Tanveer and Zubhir were part of a five-strong gang that attacked a 24 year-old on Ivegate as he was walking home from work.

After the man was kicked to the ground and hit in the face, he was stabbed with a “pointed instrument” 12 times while being robbed.

He suffered three broken ribs, numerous puncture wounds, and bruising to his lung.

In another attack, on December 30, Tanveer and Iqbal targeted a man walking down a city centre alleyway, with one producing what appeared to be a black metal handgun.

He was struck to the side of the head with the weapon, an air gun, before it was fired in his face, with a ball-bearing striking him between the nose and mouth.

The youths pleaded guilty to multiple counts of robbery and other offences.

Tanveer, of Walden Drive, Bradford, and Zubhir, of Broadstone Way, Bradford, were both given five-year sentences of youth detention, with Iqbal, of Heaton Road, Bradford, sentenced to four years.

Sentencing the trio, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, told them they had engaged in “pack violence” and behaved in a “feral” manner, adding: “The courts will view, regardless of age, offending of this enormity and outrageousness extremely seriously. You are all, not withstanding your youth, dangerous.”

Imposing the CBO’s on the defendants, who the court heard had all refused to attend the hearing, Judge Durham Hall said: “This was an extremely grave series of offences in the city centre. Very serious robberies, when, for no apparent reason, a gang, including these three, targeted isolated men going about their business.”

Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) are imposed on more serious offenders, who engage in criminal activity as well as anti-social behaviour.

They can only be issued in conjunction with a sentence that is already imposed or if the individual has a conditional discharge.

The order will either prohibit specified acts or require the offender to participate in specified acts eg attendance at a course.

The punishment for not following a CBO is up to two years in a detention centre for under-18s and up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine (or both) for over-18s.

The court heard that the test to be applied before a CBO can be granted is whether an individual’s behaviour would cause harassment, alarm, or distress.

The judge said: “To put it neutrally, the test is made out beyond doubt. This is a proportionate response, it is necessary, it will help the accused and the authorities. I make the orders in each case for the maximum period of three years.”

Counsel mitigating for the three defendants applied for reporting restrictions to prevent their identities being revealed, but the requests were dismissed.

Judge Durham Hall said: “It would render this part of the process meaningless. Not withstanding youth, with the gravity of behaviour in this case, there must be reporting.”

In other similar cases, the court dealt with a teenager who, as part of a group of three, robbed two people with an imitation pistol near Cineworld at the Bradford Leisure Exchange on March 26.

Kian Byrne, 18, demanded his young victims hand over phones and money, and when they refused, threatened them with weapons.

Byrne pointed a BB gun at the face of one of the pair and discharged it twice, narrowly missing them on each occasion.

Another member of the gang was armed with a knife, and the court heard the two victims were threatened with “shanking”, described as “a particularly nasty form of stabbing.”

Byrne, of Westminster Place, Undercliffe, Bradford, admitted charges of robbery, attempted robbery, and the possession of an imitation firearm, and was locked up for three years in a young offenders institution.

In another case, the court heard how a different gang robbed two men within 15 minutes of each other in the early hours of February 6.

The group included 18 year-old Jack Page, a 17 year-old youth, and two other boys, aged 15 and 14 respectively.

As their first victim was returning to a hotel from the casino on Bolton Road, he was accosted near to The Broadway shopping centre.

The gang asked him for a cigarette and to use his phone, and when he declined, he was punched to the floor and kicked repeatedly.

His wallet containing £35 and cards was stolen, and he was left with facial injuries and a chipped tooth.

Shortly afterwards, the same gang set upon a man waiting in a bus stop on Hall Ings, again punching and kicking him to the floor.

They threatened to stab the man before taking £400 worth of items including a two phones, keys, and cash.

The man went to hospital to receive stitches for injuries to his eyes and face.

Later the same day, Page assaulted a 17 year-old boy as he walked towards Bradford’s Forster Square train station, pushing him to chest before breaking his jaw with a single punch.

Page, of Ovington Drive, Bradford, was sentenced to three years in a young offenders institution, with the 17 year-old ordered to serve three years youth detention.

The 15 and 14 year-olds, now 16 and 15 respectively, were both given 18-month youth detention and training orders.

Sentencing those involved in the second case, Judge Durham Hall described the “gratuitous, bad, and wicked” offending as “one of a series of recent pack attacks on vulnerable victims in Bradford.”

He said: “My job is to protect the public of this city. Isolated males and females are at very high risk now of not being able to walk through the city without being set upon by a feral pack.

“These offences are not an uncommon feature of this court’s diary. Feral, out-of-control youths, in a pack, preying on isolated, vulnerable citizens.”

Commenting on the attacks, chief inspector Michael Rutter, of Bradford District Police, said: “Violent crime will not be tolerated in the Bradford district and those who are convicted of such offences can expect custodial sentences, as has been demonstrated in these and other cases.

“Where appropriate Criminal Behaviour Orders will also be sought through the courts to put in place measures to prevent further offending upon their release. Those who breach the terms of these orders will be brought back before the courts to consider further action, which could result in more jail time.

“Police in Bradford work closely with the district’s anti-social behaviour team and other partners to identify individuals whose behaviour is of concern, and works with them to address any issues they may have and prevent further offending.

“Police will continue to work with partners to take positive action against those whose behaviour is unacceptable to make sure the Bradford district remains a safer place for all.”