Halifax King Cross cannabis farm attempted break in

Bradford Crown Court heard that Raheel Shaukat was part of a four-man gang that targeted the cannabis grow on Summergate Street in King Cross, Halifax, at around 10.30pm on November 21 last year.

Prosecutor Abdul Shakoor said the incident, which was captured on CCTV, involved the gang, some of whom were masked, arriving in a Vauxhall Astra and a Land Rover Freelander and approaching the terraced house with a toolkit intending to break in.

But within minutes of their arrival, a BMW pulled up outside the house and several men jumped out. They were armed with various weapons including an axe, a machete, and baseball bats.

Bradford Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

Shocking footage from CCTV cameras showed the BMW gang chasing away Shaukat and his group. Two were seen to attack the Land Rover with an axe and a machete, smashing off a wing mirror.

The gang including Shaukat managed to escape in the Land Rover, which dropped Shaukat at Calderdale Royal Hospital for treatment to a slash wound on his head.

Police officers who checked local hospitals found that Shaukat had been dropped off at Calderdale Royal at 10.38pm by the driver of the Land Rover.

Calderdale Royal Hospital (Image: Google Street View)

When police arrived Shaukat told them he had been visiting an unidentified female friend and was walking on the street when two cars drove towards him, stopped, and the occupants attacked him.

The Land Rover was later found burned out at a cemetery close to the hospital with CCTV showing it being set alight at 11.16pm.

Police who investigated the house on Summergate Street the next day found what was described as “a large cannabis grow” inside.

The drugs gang was not identified.

During an interview Shaukat, 43, of Undercliffe Road, Bradford, answered “no comment” to all questions. He later pleaded guilty to attempted burglary.

Mr Shakoor said: “It seems to me that the people in the BMW must have been connected to the content of the address and they did of course return or attend whilst the defendant was present at the premises.

“[The burglars] must have known that there were people who were growing cannabis who might come upon them or be inside the property.”

Mitigating, Rebecca Young said Shaukat and his accomplices had not been armed when they attempted to burgle the vacant house and were only carrying tools with which to break in through the front door. She said they did not expect anyone to be there.

She said: “They didn’t gain entry. They didn’t take anything. The people that arrived [came] armed with the intention of inflicting violence and causing a mass disorder. As a result of that this defendant suffered significant injuries.

“He is chased from the scene and assaulted with an axe in his head multiple times.

“To say that summary justice has been meted out in this case would be an understatement.

“He regrets every day the decision to become involved in this.”

The court heard that the machete wound to Shaukat’s head required 60 stitches and multiple staples and had left him with short-term memory difficulties, blurred vision, and social anxiety.

Mr Recorder Simon Jackson KC said Shaukat had been part of a well-planned operation that had hoped to share in the profits from stolen cannabis but had been foiled when the rival gang arrived.

He added: “The gang who emerged from the BMW … had a baseball bat [and] an axe.

“There was a violent melee, running about, people brandishing weapons trying to attack you and the others, and successfully attacking you and causing serious injury.”

He sentenced him to 24 months in prison suspended for two years and ordered him to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work in the community. Shaukat was also placed on an 8pm to 6am curfew for four months.