Brothers jailed for terror attack on Sparkhill post office

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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TWO brothers have been jailed for carrying out a terrifying armed attack on a Birmingham post office.

Judge Sean Morris said he had seen CCTV footage of the crime committed by Imran and Mohammed Rafiq which he said was an “outrageous event”.

He said: “It looked like something that should have happened in New York or Chicago. But it has happened here in Birmingham.”

He said one of the staff was recovering from open heart surgery at the time.

“You are lucky he did not drop down dead of a heart attack or you would be facing a serious charge indeed,” he told the them.

Judge Morris awarded Nadeem Akhtar, aged 33, £500 from public funds after praising him for his “courage and fortitude” after hearing how he had chased after the brothers.

He said it was probably as a result of his actions that the defendants were caught.

Imran Rafiq, aged 21, and Mohammed Rafiq, aged 19, both of Hillfield Road, Sparkhill, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and two charges of possessing a firearm.

Imran Rafiq was sent to prison for six years and his brother was sentenced to four-and-a-half years detention.

Lal Amarasinghe, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said the Rafiq brothers burst into the Sparkhill Post Office in Stratford Road, Sparkhill, on May 19 this year.

Customers fled as the men, who were both wearing balaclava-type masks, brandished guns at the 50-year-old manager and two members of staff and demanded money.

A glass panel was hit and threats were made to shoot a door.

Mohammed Rafiq, who was also wielding a machete, approached the manager, grabbed hold of his wrist, twisted it, and told him to open the door or he would “chop his head off”.

His brother then demanded the till to be opened but the defendants then ran out.

Mr Amarasinghe said one of the staff had hidden in a back office from where he phoned the police.

The brothers were pursued outside and arrested in a back garden.

Det Con Mark Black, from Force CID said: “My thanks go to the member of the public who chased the two offenders for over a mile to stop them.”

[La Poste]

Do they have muslim loos in prison yet?

[Lounge Lizard]

No surprise there then. Rough as a bears arse Sparkhill is and always has been.