Two men who robbed a Bradford newsagent while on bail for viciously mugging four students have been jailed for a total of almost eight years.
Sakeeb Zaman and Hamdi Saleh were part of a gang that carried out a daylight raid on Carrbottom Convenience Store, ripping out the CCTV system and making off with £300 cash and cigarettes worth around £700.
Shopkeeper Mohammed Rahman was alone in the store in Carr Bottom Road, near Buttershaw, at 6.30pm on July 8 last year when the robbers struck. Zaman, 20, of Luxor View, and Saleh, 21, of Gathorne Terrace, both Harehills, Leeds, remained outside the shop to stop customers entering while two men, who have not been apprehended, seized the cash and cigarettes.
Both defendants were on police bail for a conspiracy to rob in the early hours of May 19, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Saleh was sentenced to three years and eight months’ imprisonment by the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC, yesterday.
Zaman, a student at Leeds Met University, was locked up for four years and three months on January 3. Saleh, who was in custody, could not be sentenced with him because his probation report was not ready.
Prosecutor Chloe Hudson told the court the men, and two others, drove around Headingley, Leeds, in a white Honda car randomly robbing four students, between 2.15am and 3am.
The victims were pushed, punched or kicked and stripped of iPods, phones, cash and bank cards.
Miss Hudson said one woman did not recognise her boyfriend when she found him lying unconscious in a heap, covered in blood.
She said the newsagent robbery was carried out by two unidentified men wearing hoods and with their collars pulled up over their faces.
Saleh and Zaman waited outside, discouraging customers from going in.
Sean Smith, solicitor advocate for Saleh, told the court no weapon was used in any of the robberies and each was short-lived. Saleh had no previous convictions and was seeking treatment in custody for drug use.
The judge said the men were carried along by greed and excitement in the robbery spate.
He added: “You did not hesitate to use real violence on your victims, whether male or female.”
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