Convictions after police’s Counterfeit St crackdown
ASTOCKPORT man has been given a suspended sentence following a crackdown on Manchester’s infamous ‘Counterfeit Street’.
It comes as police revealed that the operation has led to the conviction of a man for an ‘abhorrent’ sex attack on a woman.
Hedi Sheriatzada, 22, who police said worked in a store selling knockoff goods, has now been jailed for four years and banned from entering Cheetham Hill for six years.
Detectives – who were last Wednesday celebrating the first court convictions under Operation Vulcan – said they’ve ‘long said the sale of counterfeit goods was linked to more serious and violent offences’.
During the course of an investigation into a break-in at a store, police said they were able to link Sheriatzada to the sexual assault of a woman in Cheetham Hill. He went on to plead guilty to the charges he faced.
Four men were jailed over the break-in, and a fifth given a suspended prison sentence, at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday after a year-long investigation.
Sheriatzada, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary, sexual assault and breach of a suspended sentence. Bassam AlDhufairi, 20, of Heston Avenue, Manchester, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary, theft and possession with intent to supply. He was jailed for two years and four months.
Mohammed Jazza, 28, of Seymour Road, Manchester, admitted a single count of burglary and got a year and eight months. Ali Fathli, 24, of Combermere Avenue, Manchester, also admitted burglary and was locked up for a year and seven months.
Ahmed Al-Enizi, 18, of Rutland Crescent, Stockport, received a suspended sentence and was ordered to complete 60 hours of community service. He, too, admitted burglary.
Police said Sheriatzada was initially spotted ‘scoping out’ a store on Lockett Street, off Bury New Road, on October 21 last year. All the men were said to have been ‘regularly in contact with one another’ throughout the day.
In the early hours of the next day, four men wearing masks and carrying weapons were seen entering the store. They fled after an alarm was triggered, but police used mobile phone cell site analysis as part of the investigation to plot where the men were.
A day later, on October 24, Sheriatzada and Al-Dhufairi were spotted on another ‘reconnaissance’ mission of a different store.
In the early hours of the following morning, police said the five men arrived at the second store on Lockett Street with weapons to force their way inside.
GMP said officers were ‘immediately on the scene chasing the suspects’. They seized a car they were in, finding a machete which had blood from Al Dhufairi on the handle and £23,000 worth of fake clothes.
The store was Operation Vulcan’s very first seizure, which resulted in around 20 tonnes of fake goods being seized, said the force.
Detective Constable Matt Bowling, from Operation Vulcan, welcomed the convictions and said: “We’ve long said the sale of counterfeit goods was linked to other more serious and violent offences and that is something plainly seen in this case.
“These men went equipped with weapons and one individual has been convicted for an abhorrent sexual assault of a woman whilst he was working in a counterfeit shop.
“This was a really intricate investigation where police spent hours trawling through phone records, cell site analysis and CCTV to build a compelling case which demonstrated the extent of their criminality, leaving the men little choice but to plead guilty.
“Until Operation Vulcan was launched, criminals involved in counterfeiting have felt themselves to be above the law. Our team are now showing them this isn’t the case. This type of criminality can and will lead to long jail sentences because once a gang is on our radar, we will investigate every aspect of their life, and prosecute them for every form of criminality they’re involved in.”