Pair cleared of involvement in armed robbery

FRIENDS accused of being involved in an armed robbery at a Cardiff shop hugged each other and wept yesterday as they were found not guilty by a jury.

Fuaad Musa, 20, and Leban Osman, 19, were accused of being the getaway driver and the lookout respectively in the armed robbery of Arora Cash Stores in Atlas Road, Canton, on May 12 last year.

Their co-defendants Mohammed Rahman and Ahmed Mohamed, who carried out the robbery using knives and balaclavas and were caught on CCTV, have pleaded guilty to the robbery.

Rahman and Mohamed threatened shop owner Ashok Arora, in his sixties, to hand over money from the till, and took £600 before leaving the shop.

It was claimed by prosecutor John Warren that both Musa and Osman were involved in the conspiracy and had agreed to help their “close friends” rob the store to help them pay off a debt.

But both gave evidence in court saying they were unaware of Rahman and Mohamed’s intention to rob the store and only became aware the robbery had taken place shortly before they were stopped by armed officers on the A48 Eastern Avenue near the University Hospital of Wales.

The jury of seven men and five women took just over two hours to reach their verdicts at Cardiff Crown Court.

Musa and Osman hugged each other as the forewoman read out the not guilty verdicts and they were told by Judge Jeremy Jenkins they were free to leave the dock.

Both men wept as they were hugged by family members and friends who watched proceedings from the public gallery.

Osman, of Hafod Street, Grangetown, will now return to a business management course at the University of the West of England in Bristol while Musa, of Wellington Street, Grangetown, will take up his law course at the same university later this year.

Earlier on in the hearing, Musa’s defence barrister Gareth Morley told the jury they would only be able to reach a guilty verdict for his client if they were “sure” of the evidence against him.

He said: “In this case, yes there’s a robbery and two men have pleaded guilty to that robbery but there are two men in the dock who are innocent of that robbery.”

He added: “He was doing his A-levels, was holding down a good job and had the opportunity to go to university, why would he have involved himself in a random incident of that nature?”

Referring to his client, Osman’s defence barrister Matthew Cobbe said: “He doesn’t get into trouble and he doesn’t want to get into trouble, he wants to make something of himself and is in university now. Is he someone who would throw that away for £10?”

Rahman, 19, of Court Road, and Mohamed, 20, of York Place, are due to be sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court at a later date.