Schoolchildren left 'petrified' as takeaway driver pulled out knife during Wakefield street scuffle

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Schoolchildren on their way homer “must have been petrified” after a man pulled out a knife while bickering with a friend outside a takeaway, a court heard.

Father-of-three Kashif Amjad later said he brandished the pen-knife because he feared for his safety, but it was not enough to keep from being jailed at Leeds Crown Court.

Judge Kate Rayfield told him: “Knife crime is on the increase in this country. When people walk around with knives in their pockets it’s all too easy to produce that knife in the heat of the moment.

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“Sometimes it has fatal consequences. This incident could have ended very differently indeed. The message must go out that those who carry knives must go immediately to prison.

“If two men fighting in front of children, they have clearly lost control. Those children must have been petrified.”

The court heard that the two men knew each other but had a disagreement which became heated on the afternoon of July 14, 2022. A witness driving along Agbrigg Road in Wakefield said he saw the two men in the street, with Amjad holding the black knife.

The witness said there were schoolchildren along the street so he called the police. Amjad, 38, of Maybush Road, Agbrigg, admitted a charge of possessing an offensive weapon in public.

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Mitigating, Jemima Stephenson said: “He accepts he took it out of his pocket and had it in his hand. He was in fear for his own safety. He accepts it was very foolish and he has learned his lesson.

“It’s behaviour that is entirely out of character for him. He is unlikely to repeat this.”

She said he worked as a takeaway delivery driver to provide for his wife and children. Judge Rayfield jailed Amjad for eight months.

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