Three guilty of firearms charge over drive-by shooting in Leeds

Three men have been found guilty of a firearms possession conspiracy over a drive-by shooting in Leeds.
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PIC: Google

A trial heard how the windscreen of Asif Khan’s BMW was damaged but he escaped unharmed during the incident in Beeston.

Jurors heard Mr Khan was “the intended victim” when shots were fired at close range from a sawn-off shotgun from a VW Passat.

Two men in the Passat were wearing balaclavas.

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Mr Khan, who had a passenger in his vehicle, managed to “ram” his way out and get away without injury.

The incident happened at 1.45am on October 28 last year, on Back Maud Avenue, behind Manny’s Fisheries.

Relatives of the Khan family were the victims of arson attacks three days later when two cars, worth £70,000, were set alight.

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The jury was told an Audi Quattro, worth £50,000, and a VW Golf, worth £20,000, were set alight outside a house on Norborough Road, Tinsley, Sheffield.

Neighbours who witnessed the incident in the early hours of October 31 were threatened.

One of the men involved in the arson attack also swung an axe at a passing taxi.

Wakkas Butts, 25, of Cross Flatts Road, Beeston; Shezan Shabir, 25, of Old Mill View, Dewsbury and Irshad Badar, 22, of Rowliff Road, High Wycombe, were found guilty of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life.

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Butt and Shabir were also found guilty of arson being reckless as the weather life is endangered.

Two other men - Aadil Malik, of Lynndale Avenue, Birkby, and Adil Quyyum, of Pickles Street, Batley - were found guilty of the same arson charge.

Sentencing was adjourned in relation to all defendants to allow for reports to consider whether they represent a serious danger to the public.

Judge Tom Bayliss, QC, said: “I need to make a decision as to the risk you pose of causing death or serious injury.

“All sentences will inevitably one of custody.”

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During the trial, David Brooke, QC, told the jury: “The police investigation revealed that these were planned attacks, for which these defendants did everything they could to disguise or hide their whereabouts.

“For example, they met and stayed in various hotels you will hear about, using false cards and false details to book and pay for those hotels.

“They used vehicles that bore unregistered or false registration plates, swopped in and out of various vehicles and even went so far as to purchase a change of clothes after the shooting, all to conceal and hide evidence of what they were doing.”