Halifax mosque burglar is put behind bars
AN IRANIAN refugee with a criminal record for targeting West Yorkshire mosques has been jailed again for a burglary in Halifax.
Farshad Jafari, who came to England seeking asylum seven years ago, was jailed back in 2017 after a spate of “despicable” attacks on four mosques during which he used a homemade implement to “fish” money out of charity donation boxes.
The 28-year-old, of Queen’s Road, Halifax, was sentenced to three years in jail after he was confronted by an imam and another man during a burglary at the Noorani mosque on Gibraltar Road last November.
Bradford Crown Court heard how the complainant, who lived in a property attached to the mosque returned home at 11pm and found Jafari standing in his kitchen.
Prosecutor Georgina Coade said the man alerted the imam and they spotted Jafari in the street after they called the police. Miss Coade said at one point Jafari reached into the pocket of his jacket and said:”I’ll stab you.”
No knife was produced by the defendant, who ran off, but Miss Coade said his fingerprints were later found on a safe in the mosque.
Jafari pleaded guilty to the burglary charge and his barrister Gerald Hendron explained how his client had been granted asylum.
He said the defendant, who had worked as a painter and decorator, developed a heroin and crack cocaine addiction and that had driven his offending.
Jafari was still on prison licence when he burgled the mosque last November and Judge Jonathan Rose said he had violated the laws of the country in the years since he was allowed to remain.
The judge said the prison sentence was to punish Jafari and to protect the public from a man who “has no respect for their faith”.
The burglar rached into his jacket and threatened an imam saying ‘I’ll stab you’
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