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Leeds speeding ticket scam scuppered
A SPEEDING ticket scam involving minicab drivers hit the skids after a farcical blunder by its hapless mastermind.
'Mr Fix It' Tajamal Hussain tried to help six taxi and delivery drivers evade motoring convictions by filling in traffic offence notices with fake details.
But in a monumental error, he filled in each of the forms in his own handwriting and gave almost identical addresses – a fictional house in Hyde Park – in each case.
The fraud was soon spotted by officers at West Yorkshire Police who noticed the pattern and began an investigation.
At Leeds Crown Court, Tajamal Hussain, 36, of Manor Carr Crescent, Moortown, pleaded guilty to five counts of perverting the course of justice.
He could have been jailed, but was spared by Judge Scott Wolstenholme, who instead handed him an 11-month suspended sentence.
He also ordered Tajamal Hussain to complete 250 hours of unpaid work and pay 1,500 in court costs.
Judge Scott Wolstenholme told him: "You were approached by or on behalf of motorists who depend on their cars for their livelihood, who didn't want the inconvenience of points on their licence or disqualification.
"You filled in their returns with deliberately false details so that they would get away with it."
He said of Tajamal Hussain's clumsy dealings: "It was not a very clever way to pervert the course of justice."
In sentencing him, he said he had taken account of Tajamal Hussain's family circumstances – the defendant claimed that if he were sent to prison his pregnant wife would be taken back to her parents in Manchester and prevented from seeing him again.
The six drivers involved in the fraud, which ran from August 2008 to February 2009, were disqualified from driving and ordered to do unpaid work in the community.
Sentencing them, Judge Wolstenholme said: "Rather than face the consequences of these minor offences, you casually handed your notices to others so that false details could be provided and you could avoid prosecution and your licences being in peril.
"The most fitting punishment is to deprive you of your licences."
Tariq Hussain, 48, of Montagu Avenue, Gipton, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work, banned from driving for four months and ordered to pay 750 costs.
Farooq Ahmed, 38, of Hilltop Avenue, Potternewton, pleaded guilty to two counts of perverting the course of justice and was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work, disqualified from driving for four months and ordered to pay 1,500 in costs.
Azad Miah, 42, of Warwick Road, Carlisle, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. He was ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work, banned from the road for four months and ordered to pay 1,500 costs.
A notice of running a red light sent to Imran Rafiq in January 2009 was returned to police in the name of Saleem Sadiq, apparently of 49B Brudenell Road and in Tajamal Hussain's handwriting. He pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work, banned from driving for four months and told to pay 750 costs.
Wahid Hussain, 30, of Manor Grove, Chapeltown, was ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work, disqualified from driving for three months and told to pay 1,500 costs. He had pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
And Mustafa Noorani, 31, of Lovell Park Grange, Little London, also pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. He was ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work, disqualified from driving for three months and told to pay 750 costs.
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