175-mile ordeal af ter police get the wrong man
WHEN a driver was pulled over by police while delivering a pizza, he thought it was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
But it was the start of a nightmare ordeal for Mohammed Naved Bashir, which saw him end up in court in another country.
Despite protesting that officers had the wrong man, he was sent 175 miles from Yorkshire to Glasgow, to be accused of fraud.
It was only when the 35-yearold – who had been in police custody for three days – appeared at the city’s sheriff court that police admitted their mistake.
A lawyer acting for the correct wanted man told the court: ‘That’s not my client.’
Mr Bashir, of Elland, Yorkshire, was left on the street with only £6 in his pocket to get home.
He said: ‘Luckily, I have relatives in Glasgow and I was able to contact them and they drove me back home.
‘It’s really upsetting what happened and has made me really paranoid. I am constantly looking over my shoulder now.
‘It’s made me feel disgusted and sick, it’s depressing and I’ve lost my appetite since then.
‘I’ve never done anything like that. I have always worked hard and keep my nose clean. Then this happens.’
Before the incident, Mr Bashir had considered applying to become a Police Community Support Officer. Unsurprisingly, he has ditched the idea.
Indeed, he has now made a formal complaint against West Yorkshire Police.
His lawyer Simon McKay said: ‘In our modern society, it is unacceptable that an innocent man should be held in these circumstances.’
Mr Bashir was stopped by an unmarked police car shortly after midnight on December 15.
Officers accused him of having t he wrong i nsurance and checked his name on a database, where it was wrongly matched with that of a man on the run from Glasgow, accused of fraud.
Mr Bashir: ‘I was just dropping of a pizza and was pulled over. I was asked to sit in the back of the police car and gave them my details. They asked if I had any links to Glasgow and I told them I have relatives there.
‘That was when they told me I was wanted on a warrant for fraud. I told them, “‘You’ve got the wrong person”.
‘But I was arrested and handcuffed and taken to Halifax Police Station.’
Mr Bashir insisted he fully cooperated with the police and gave them his fingerprints to prove his identity.
But after two nights in the Halifax cells, during which he claims he was not offered food for someone with coeliac disease, he was taken by G4S to Glasgow.
He said: ‘In the cells I was given papers with another man’s name and details, but my surname. I told the guards again it wasn’t me, but it wasn’t until I was taken into court and the wanted man’s solicitor saw me that he confirmed I wasn’t his client.’
Mr Bashir was then taken back to the cells until 5pm, when the solicitor officially confirmed he was not his client and he was finally released.
Mr Bashir has a five-year- old son Da’ud and a daughter, Haani’ah, aged two, with his 21year-old wife Asima.
He said : ‘My kids were worried because they didn’t know where I was at night to tuck them and my wife was, of course, very stressed by they whole thing.’
Last night, West Yorkshire Police said it could not comment for legal reasons.