Bank worker took day off to go on armed raid
AN armed robber who led a double life while working full-time at a bank call centre told his bosses his grandmother had died so he could get the day off to help complete another heist, a court heard.
Sajjad Hussain, 28, was part of a gang which carried out a series of raids, including one at the Tesco on Silk Street, Rochdale stealing £8,050.
They also carried out an attempted robbery at B&M Bargains, Yorkshire Street, Rochdale
For one of the crimes, Hussain took the day off as compassionate leave after lying to his employers to join his partners in crime Abubakir Iqbal, 30, Anas Khan, 26, and Shazad Mahmood, also 26.
The gang had successfully carried out 10 raids on cash-in-transit vans across Greater Manchester and stolen more than £90,000 before they were caught while trying to flee from their eleventh robbery at a branch of Natwest bank in Halifax.
Hussain, who lied to his work to get the day off for the Halifax robbery, phoned in sick or booked a day off so he could continue with the gang’s crime spree.
After every robbery, Iqbal went to a massage parlour in Bury ‘as a kind of reward.’
Hussain also visited it.
Now all four have been jailed for a total of almost 80 years.
Khan and Iqbal were both locked up for 21 years each, Hussain for 18 years and Mahmood for 17 years.
When Khan learned of his fate, he launched a foulmouthed tirade towards sentencing Judge Michael Leeming, who he repeatedly called a ‘f ****** muppet.’
“Stick 21 years up your f ****** a***,” Khan told the judge.
Judge Leeming warned Khan that if he doesn’t apologise for the outburst he could face further punishment and be held in contempt of court.
Manchester
Crown
Court heard that the gang struck in broad daylight targeting guards picking up cash takings from restaurants and shops from November 26, 2018, until January 31 last year.
The crimes happened across the region in Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, Stockport and Manchester before the final plot in Halifax.
Guards were threatened with weapons including hammers and sometimes attacked before they made off with a cash box, while one man remained in a getaway car ready to whisk them away from the scene of the crime.
No guards were seriously hurt but they told of being ‘badly shocked’ and ‘wary’ following their ordeals, with one saying he was thankful that ‘things didn’t go horribly wrong.’
In one robbery, at The Rock shopping centre in Bury, prosecutor Phil Barnes told how there were ‘hundreds’ of members of the public nearby on a busy shopping day in the run up to Christmas.
On December 10, 2018, the gang struck three times in the same day, netting about £12,000.
Judge Leeming said the gang showed a ‘complete disregard for the impact this sort of criminality has on the public.’
“You were prepared to resort to violence to achieve your ends, regardless of the presence of the public, for very large rewards.”
The judge said they planned most of their offences for Mondays, when they knew cash takings would be higher following the weekend.
A feature of the case which later helped police piece together the gang’s crimes was the distinct way in which they got to the cash within the secure box.
If opened the boxes emit dye as a security measure, so the gang used a Stihl saw to prise open the box and remove the cash, taking away the money but discarding the box.
After the robberies they would then launder the cash using fixed odds betting terminals at bookmakers.
Iqbal, of Countess Street, Accrington, and Hussain, of St James Road, Higher Broughton, Salford, were both found guilty of conspiracy to rob after a trial. Khan and Mahmood, of Edward Street, Oldham pleaded guilty to the same offence.
Khan, of Landseer Street, Glodwick, Oldham, also admitted conspiracy to convert criminal property and conspiracy to handle stolen goods.
Stella Massey, defending Khan, said he has been prescribed medication for stress as he owes a £40,000 cannabis debt to an Albanian gang, which is still outstanding.
Mahmood, an electrician, told the author of a pre-sentence report he ‘enjoyed the adrenaline surge’ he felt while committing the offences.
For him it was a ‘form of escapism’ from the ‘pressure within the family setup,’ his barrister Zarif Khan.
Jeremy Hill-Baker, for Hussain, said there is ‘plainly another side’ to the married father-of-two, who has another child on the way.