- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
THREE men drove from Birmingham to Swansea to mug a woman and steal her handbag containing more than £23,000, a court heard.
Cameron Hussain, Usmaan Ali, and Hassan Aftab drove from Birmingham to Swansea in a hired Mercedes car and repeatedly punched in the face of the victim, who has not been named.
The trio was stopped by the police as they headed back home after a witness made a note of the car’s registration plate.
The incident happened on July 24.
Swansea Crown Court was told that the victim, only identified as a Chinese woman in her 40s, was carrying a Louis Vuitton handbag, and a black bin liner containing some £23,600.
She had withdrawn the money from a series of accounts at various banks in the city.
She was approached by Hussain and Aftab while she was on her way to her family
property. They repeatedly punched her in the face, and snatched her bags.
They then jumped into the waiting Mercedes and sped off.
Aftab, aged 28, of Westridge Road, Billesley, Birmingham; Ali, aged 26, of Grange Road, Erdington, Birmingham; and 38-year-old Hussain, of Somerville Road, Small Heath, Birmingham, had all previously pleaded guilty to a joint charge of robbery.
Each defendant was sentenced four years and six months in jail, it was reported on Monday (23).
Recorder Elwen Evans QC told the trio: “This was a targeted, high value robbery and you came from Birmingham to carry it out.
“You set out from Birmigham and by 6.30pm you were in the marina area where you committed the robbery. It is fortunate there were witnesses and they were able to provide the car’s licence plates to police, and you were stopped by police on the A48 near Bridgend.
“Two adults males were punching a lone woman while the third waited nearby to drive you back to Birmingham.
“When sought to explain why, I was told the offence was motivated by the lure of easy money, but none of you has provided the [pre-sentence] report writers further context, and one of them says it is factually perplexing.
“You all say you are sorry and express remorse, but it is difficult to properly evaluate because of your unwillingness [to explain] how you came to be involved in this organised criminal offence.
“You are all of good character, or as the prosecution assesses effectively so. You are all family men with family commitments.
“But the culpability and harm falls above a standard street robbery.”
