Friend of landlord admits blackmail and gets 18-month sentence

Paul Lawes, 38, was told by a judge that his “substantial size” was one of the main reasons why their victim was frightened.

Prosecutor Dave MacKay told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that Abdul Kayume, 32, rented a room from landlord Mohammed Bashir in Beamsley Road, Shipley, in July 2009. The defendant lived in another room there with his girlfriend.

Mr MacKay said the landlord had threatened to throw out Mr Kayume because of water damage which had been caused to the flats and Mr Bashir said he was owed money by the tenant.

Mr Kayume was in his flat when the landlord and the defendant started banging on the door and Lawes forced it open. Bashir threatened him with a knife and took his wallet, while the defendant punched him. The victim was driven to a bank where he withdrew £340 and gave it to Lawes.

Mr Kayume was taken back to his room, where he was further punched by the defendant. After midnight Bashir was involved in making threats to stab and murder his tenant, until the following morning when he fled.

Both men were arrested but Bashir had since fled the country.

Lawes’s barrister, James Bourne-Arton, said his client had got involved out of a misguided friendship with Bashir. He said Lawes did not get on with Mr Kayume and he had found out the complainant had been listening to him and his girlfriend while they were in bed.

Lawes pleaded guilty to a charge of blackmail, on the basis that he did not have a knife and what he did was at the instigation of Bashir.

But the judge, Recorder Dean Kershaw, said it could not be right that he had only been following what Bashir said, and he had made it very clear he was threatening the complainant.

The judge told Lawes: “You have to be sentenced for a very serious offence. You acted in an absolutely disgusting way, in a way that can only be described as a bully.”

He said the offence fell into the category of blackmail by debt collecting.