BEHIND BARS: Criminals who were jailed in Bradford this week

AN uninsured driver who tore along the motorway from Manchester to Bradford at up to 120mph pursued by five police cars and the force’s helicopter was jailed for 21 months.

Harris Rasool casually lit a cigarette as he sped down the M62 with a patrol vehicle alongside him at 110mph, Bradford Crown Court heard.

He covered 60 miles from Trafford Boulevard in Manchester to the M62 at Bradford in 27 minutes doing more than £11,000 damage to two West Yorkshire Police BMWs on the way.

Rasool, 28, of Azalea Gardens, Cambuslang, Glasgow, had two passengers in the Mer-cedes with him including a boy aged 15, prosecutor Nicola Hoskins said.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving shortly after midnight on March 23, 2020, criminal damage to the police cars and driving without insurance on a provisional licence.

The court heard that he accelerated away from the police when they activated their blue lights and sirens, heading out of Manchester on to the M60.

He ran four red lights as the chase got underway and reached speeds of 90mpm on the motorway, swerving to stop the police catching up with him.

The lengthy pursuit then increased to 100mph, reaching 120mph on several occasions.

Miss Hoskins said that on the eastbound M62, Rasool looked at the officer alongside him at 110mph and lit a cigarette.

When the police boxed him in, he rammed a BMW 330D to escape, smashing into a second similar car soon afterwards. The cost of repair was £2,267 and £8,817.

Miss Hoskins said five police cars were by now ‘tearing along’ after Rasool and the police helicopter had joined the pursuit.

He was stopped by a stinger device and found two have two male passengers, including the teenage boy.

Rasool told the police he had travelled from Glasgow to Manchester and someone had asked him to drive the car.

Ian Hudson said in mitigation that Rasool’s previous convictions did not include any driving offences and he had stayed out of trouble since.

He urged the court to suspend the prison sentence because there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and the offences were more than two years old.

Recorder Alex Menary said Rasool had been pursued for 27 minutes over a distance of 60 miles at grossly excessive and reckless speeds.

He had two passengers on board, including a boy aged 15, and two police cars had been damaged at a cost of more than £11,000.

Only an immediate term of imprisonment would meet the justice of the case.

Rasool was banned from driving for two years and ten months.

Barry Briggs

A SERIAL burglar with 16 house break-ins on his record was jailed for two years for kicking and prising at a flat door watched by a frightened mother at home with her children.

Barry Briggs, with 19 convictions for 32 offences, and his accomplice David Lord at-tacked the patio doors at the address in Sandhill Close, Allerton, Bradford, at 5am on February 23.

Prosecutor Laura McBride told Bradford Crown Court that the woman heard a noise and saw the men kicking at the patio doors and fiddling with them. One then began kicking at a window while the other had some sort of implement in his hand.

She was so frightened when one of them saw her that she ran to a neighbour for help.

The pair then left and she took a video of them as they made off up some bankings.

Miss McBride said the victim was afraid both for herself and her two children in the flat with her.

The police found a footmark on the window and the door damaged and slightly opened.

They apprehended the defendants nearby and found a knife with a broken blade.

Briggs, 45, and Lord, 32, both of Beamsley Road, Shipley, pleaded guilty to attempted burglary.

Upkar Bahia, for Briggs, said he had taken tablets and had no recollection of committing the offence. He was taken to hospital by the police because he was so intoxicated he couldn’t stand.

Mr Bahia said Briggs had made great efforts to stay off drugs after his release from his last jail sentence. He had been in custody since his arrest.

Camille Morland said Lord was highly intoxicated and had no memory of the burglary attempt. He had no previous convictions and he had since moved from Bradford to Huddersfield where he intended to stay.

He had serious mental health problems and his support worker had attended court with him.

Recorder Alex Menary said the woman was very frightened when she saw the men trying to break in. One of them was kicking the door and the other using a weapon to try to force it. Both were intoxicated at the time.

Although Briggs had to go straight to prison, Recorder Menary said he could take an exceptional course with Lord. He had no previous convictions, ongoing mental health problems and he had made good progress since.

He was sentenced to 22 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, with up to 30 rehabilitation activity days.

Ricky Lancaster

BRADFORD’S top judge gave a stark warning of the dangers skunk cannabis farms pose to law and order when he jailed a man who made six houses in one street available to Albanian criminals to cultivate the drug.

The city’s Recorder, Judge Richard Mansell QC, locked Ricky Lancaster up for four years for playing ‘a crucial role’ in the operation run by the organised gang.

Lancaster, 32, of Idle Road, Five Lane Ends, Bradford, pleaded guilty to production of cannabis and possession of criminal property.

Prosecutor Gerald Hendron said that just after 5am on December 12 last year the police got a 999 call from a member of the public reporting a disturbance in Rylstone Gardens, Undercliffe, Bradford.

People were screaming and running around with bats, it was reported.

When the police arrived there was an Audi in the middle of the road, a VW Caddy van parked alongside it and a strong smell of cannabis.

Lancaster was in the street bleeding profusely from his left leg. He had three separate stab or slash wounds, two to his leg and one to his elbow. There was also a badly injured young man in the back of the van.

There were cannabis grows at six house in the street that were owned or rented out by Lancaster. The total street value of the crops was £843,000 and the estimated yield was 98 kilos, Mr Hendron said.

Three garages built by Lancaster contained a bin liner of cannabis, a money counting machine, a Nissan Micra, £420,000 in cash, ten Rolex watches, a Gucci watch, gold chains, a quad bike, six motorbikes and four small quad bikes.

There was also a BMW X5 belonging to Lancaster that was seized by the police.

He had previous convictions for supplying cannabis to friends, possession of cannabis, battery, racially aggravated common assault and resisting a police constable.

Robin Frieze said in mitigation that Lancaster knew there would be a prison sentence of some length.

He had developed a brain tumour when he was 18 and that had left him with epilepsy. He had suffered 15 seizures while in custody on remand and needed hospital treatment.

Lancaster began smoking cannabis because it made him less anxious and that helped to prevent the seizures.

He was a refrigerator engineer and then he ran a scaffolding company. He sold that and began to buy houses in the street and others elsewhere with legitimate tenants in them.

In 2020, a tenant suggested converting one of the addresses into a cannabis farm and he went on to allow all three of his houses in the street to be used by an Albanian organised crime group. He was paid a substantial amount of money but he did not own or distribute the cannabis.

Mr Frieze said he then helped the gang by renting three more houses in the street to grow the drug in. The ‘profitable and well organised operation’ had been going on for a year.

Lancaster was receiving £10,000 to 15,000 a month from it, Mr Frieze said.

He had a partner and three young children. His family had been caused a great deal of distress but his relatives were in court to support him.

Judge Mansell said the violence in Rylstone Gardens arose when men tried to break into one of the houses. Numerous black bin liners of cannabis were piled up in the address.

Lancaster had been stabbed and slashed three times and was bleeding profusely.

In the van was a bloodstained length of wood and there was a boy aged 16 in the back of the vehicle who had suffered horrific slash wounds to his face. He had gone missing from London and been exploited. He had been sent to burgle the house to steal the crop.

“Five further properties in the same cul-de-sac, which were either owned or let by you, or in respect of which you had some control, had been converted into commercial scale cannabis grows,” Judge Mansell said.

Lancaster had knowingly turned over six houses to the Albanian gang for the growing of the drug in expectation of significant financial gain.

When a rival gang from London arrived, he called for back-up and a boy was subjected to appalling violence that would leave him permanently scarred.

“I do not sentence you for the actions of others who inflicted those injuries on him. However, it is worth pointing out that the production of skunk cannabis on a commercial scale in residential and commercial premises is not a harmless enterprise but involves serious organised crime,” Judge Mansell stated.

“The profits that are to be made from the sale of skunk cannabis grown in this way are massive. The finding of £420,000 in cash which you were storing in your Nissan Micra plainly represents the proceeds of earlier cropped cannabis sold on the black market and speaks for itself.

“How much of that money was yours, and how much was due to be passed on to the Al-banian organised crime group that was running these cannabis grows is unclear but since you were receiving £10,000-15,000 per month it would seem that this did represent the proceeds of your criminal activity.”

Confiscation proceedings would see Lancaster stripped of cash, watches, jewellery and bikes, Judge Mansell said.

Bradford Crown Court (Image: Telegraph & Argus)

TWO drug dealers caught red-handed repeatedly street-selling crack cocaine and heroin were free to carry on because they weren’t subject to any bail conditions, the Recorder of Bradford said.

Judge Richard Mansell QC was sentencing the men more than three years after they were snared in a police crackdown on Class A drugs trafficking in central Halifax.

Akaas Pervez, 38, of Akeds Road, Halifax, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin on three separate occasions between January and May, 2019, and a single count of possession of cash as criminal property. He was jailed for two and a half years.

Ahamer Ahmed, 30, of Cromwell Terrace, Halifax, was jailed for two years and four months after admitting possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin on two occasions between March and May, 2019. He also pleaded guilty to simple possession of Class A drugs in October that year.

Judge Mansell told them: “The fact that you are only now facing punishment for your offending is due in large part to the practice, which has become well-established in recent years, of releasing defendants under investigation, leaving them free to continue offending.

“This is particularly commonplace now in cases involving the supply of Class A drugs, where notwithstanding the fact that defendants are caught red-handed with a significant stash of Class A drugs, cash and more than one mobile phone, a charging decision is deferred for many months with suspects released under investigation and subject to no restrictions of their liberty or supervision, as there would be had they been granted bail with conditions.

“Not only does it often lead to more offending on the part of these individuals, but there is often an overlap with the arrests of other suspects and a similar delay in investigating their offending, which only builds further delay into the process. This is precisely what has happened here.”

The court heard that the first offences, on January 22, 2019, involved Pervez alone.

He was driving a Ford Focus on Pellon Lane when he was stopped by the police. He had £548 in cash with him, several phones, and a search at the police station revealed 37 street deals of crack cocaine and 26 of heroin hidden in his buttocks.

He was released under investigation for those offences.

Both men were then caught with drugs in a blue Audi on Fenton Road on March 3, 2019. A package in the rear footwell contained 59 street deals of crack cocaine and 25 deals of heroin, several mobile phones and £134 in cash.

Both were released under investigation, Pervez for the second time.

On May 4, 2019, Pervez was seen handing items from a white BMW close to the town centre. The car was stopped and a bag containing 20 street deals of heroin and 43 deals of crack cocaine was seized by the police.

Pervez was also found to be in possession of around £485 in cash.

On May 20, 2019, Ahmed was stopped in a VW Golf on Hanson Road in the centre of Halifax. A package containing 58 wraps of crack cocaine and 46 wraps of heroin was recovered from his trousers.

There was nearly £100 in coins in the Golf’s central console and £270 in banknotes be-hind the driver’s sun visor.

The final two offences were simple possession of Class A drugs committed by Ahmed on October 4, 2019.

Judge Mansell said others already sentenced were higher up the drugs supply chain.

Neither Pervez nor Ahmed had any previous convictions for drugs trafficking offences and both were dealing to fund their own habit.

He also took into account the significant delay in bringing the cases to sentence.

Wayne Thornton

A PROLIFIC house burglar serving six years for breaking into people’s homes was locked up for 20 months for smashing his way into an address in Burley in Wharfedale and ransacking it.

Wayne Thornton appeared before Bradford Crown Court on a video link to HMP Northumberland where it was stated he was undergoing an intensive course to help with his issues with drink and drugs.

Thornton, 46, whose address was given as the prison, pleaded guilty to raiding the property between December 5 and 9, 2020.

Prosecutor Daniel Ingham said he smashed a conservatory door with a brick to burgle it.

The householder returned to find his home ransacked and two laptop computers and a passport stolen.

Thornton had left his blood at the crime scene but told the police it wasn’t him and he had never been there. Asked to explain why his blood was in a wardrobe he said he didn’t know.

He had 27 previous convictions for 82 offences, including 18 house burglaries, but almost all of them predated the year when the ‘third strike’ three-year minimum term was introduced.

In January last year, he was locked up for six years for a series of house burglaries.

The Telegraph & Argus reported at the time that he raided almost £25,000 worth of property from one of the three homes he targeted.

Today, Ian Hudson said in mitigation that Thornton wasn’t due for release until September next year. He asked the court to impose a sentence that would not increase his time behind bars.

He said Thornton had picked up the brick at the scene. He did not go there with tools to force entry.

He was completing an intensive course in prison to deal with issues of drink and drugs.

Thornton had been in gainful employment for many years and he hoped to get back on track when he was released.

Recorder Tahir Khan QC said it was a serious offence of burglary with a degree of ran-sacking.

Thornton had a bad record with convictions dating back to 1988 for dishonesty, including burglary.

On January 22 last year, he was jailed for six years for a number of house burglaries and would remain in custody until September 6 next year.

Recorder Khan said he now had to consider what that sentence would have been if it had included the Burley in Wharfedale burglary.

He jailed Thornton for 20 months starting today, saying it would be subsumed in the sentence he was already serving.