Violent pair jailed after spate of high-end thefts and attacks on motorists
APAIR of violent thugs have been jailed for using “grotesque” violence to target often lone female drivers in a spate of carjackings.
The pair were responsible for a string of vicious attacks across Birmingham and Solihull, often using golf clubs and metal bars.
This week Sarweeth Rehman and Hussun Ashraf, both aged 22, were jailed for the plot to steal high-end cars.
Their spree began on August 24 last year, when Rehman threatened the BMW M4 driver for his keys in Baxters Green, Shirley.
The driver fled, hurling his keys into a garden as he ran, before Rehman set about smashing up the M4 and causing damage put at £10,000.
Later that day they stole a Volkswagen Golf Type R after dragging a woman driver from behind the wheel in nearby Hathaway Road.
In another incident Rehman followed a female motorist onto her driveway in Barston Lane, Barston, near Solihull, before punching her and driving off in her Mercedes C-Class Estate.
They struck again on September 18 when they robbed a man of his Audi RS6 in Church Road, Moseley.
Officers tracked the RS6 an hour later to Spreadbury Close, off Hagley Road, in Harborne, and during a search of the car found an iPhone Ashraf as he flee.
His home in Stuarts Road, Stechford, was raided by police on November 9 and another phone was shown to have been used at the scene of three more carjackings.
It helped detectives link him to a robbery in Bracebridge Close, Balsall Common, on October 20 when a Mercedes was taken from a woman as she pulled onto her driveway, plus another two days later in Damson Lane, Solihull, when a man handed over keys to his BMW M135 having been approached by two men armed with a knife and golf club.
The next robbery saw a man wearing a balaclava drive off in a woman’s BMW M135 on October 25 from a Harvester pub in Sutton Coldfield.
Ashraf and Rehman, who was also arrested on November 9 at home in Hartopp Road, Alum Rock, had been on bail at the time on suspicion of involve- dropped by ment cars.
A separate enquiry exposed how they used a yellow breakdown tow truck to tow away seven cars parked in city streets between May 4 and June 13, 2016.
Most were taken in the dead of night with owners waking to find tyre marks across the road where their cars had been parked.
Ashraf and associate Adal Azam were arrested at 11.30pm on June 13 shortly after a BMW 1 Series was stolen from St Mary’s Road, in Harborne.
A police patrol car tailed the tow truck into Gowan Road, Alum Rock, where Ashraf was detained after a brief foot-chase.
Azam, aged 22, from Watson Road, was arrested from a Vauxhall Corsa being driven in convoy with the truck.
Ashraf and Rehman admitted conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to steal motor vehicles. They also admitted two counts of assault with intent to rob over two failed carjackings on 9 February 2017 at Moat Lane and Fazeley carparks.
At Birmingham Crown Court this week, Ashraf was jailed for six years four months and Rehman for six years.
Azam and Shoaib Hussain, from Primley Avenue in Bromford, also admitted being part of the tow-truck plot.
Azam was jailed for three years and ten months, while Hussain was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence. in a conspiracy to steal