News / Gunpoint robber faces lengthy jail term
A DRUG dealer who robbed a Shetland couple at gunpoint after they travelled 600 miles to buy a car advertised on the internet has been warned he faces a significant prison sentence next week.
On Friday afternoon a jury at Bradford Crown Court found 24 year old Sajid Hussain guilty of being part of the terrifying attack on Michael Irvine and Louise Cogle from Effirth, Bixter, in August.
During a week long trial the couple told the court how they were attacked by three masked men after travelling by train to Bradford and being directed to a take a taxi to the Heaton area of the city.
The jury heard how the robbers, armed with a handgun and a plank of wood, grabbed a suitcase containing the £5000 the couple had brought with them to buy a white Audi Quattro.
During Hussain’s trial, Cogle told the jury how the handgun was pointed at her partner’s face during the incident.
”I thought they were going to shoot Michael,” she told the court.
”I was begging them not to shoot him. I was saying give them the bag. Just leave him alone.”
Irvine described how he froze when the men ran at him and he realised it was fruitless trying to do anything.
Hussain, of Cunliffe Villas, Manningham, Bradford, had denied the robbery charge and a related offence of possessing a firearm or imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, but after about four hours of deliberation the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts.
After the verdicts were returned prosecutor Simon Haring revealed that Hussain was already awaiting sentence for supplying heroin and cocaine in the city.
A second attacker, Shahid Sadik, of Toller Lane, Bradford, admitted the robbery and gun charges before Hussain’s trial began and they will both now be sentenced by Judge John Potter next Wednesday.
Remanding Hussain in custody the judge told him he must expect to receive a significant custodial sentence for all of the offences.
John Davies
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