Two dealers kidnapped a drug user before driving him around in just his underwear and beating him while filming him in a ‘degrading’ attack. The man, in his 50s, had been recruited to work for Ali Shah, 23, as a courier.
However, events came to a head when Shah gave the man £160 to insure the car he was using to deliver the drugs, but he instead spent it, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
On one occasion, Shah ordered him into his car and drove him around, ordering a 15-year-old boy to hit him, and make demands for the money back.
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The man agreed, and a payment plan was set up, but before the first payment date, Shah turned up at the man’s house in Oldham. He ordered the man, who was wearing just his boxers having been woken up, into the car, and a violent two-hour ordeal ensued in which the man was repeatedly slapped and punched.
Driven by Sameer Choudhury, 24, Shah and the teenager repeatedly attacked the man and filmed it on their mobile phones. In one video, a man can be heard asking: “What do we do to thieves?” And another man replied: “We cut them up.”
The man was eventually let go and the police were called. A day later, patrolling officers spotted the car and a high-speed pursuit ensued. Shah and Choudhury were eventually arrested, and found in possession of cocaine and heroin.
They have both been jailed after admitting kidnap, false imprisonment, ABH and possession with intent to supply class A drugs.
Prosecuting, Julian King said the victim was a class A drug user, and had known and bought drugs from Shah for six months, and so started working for him due to a drug debt. Shah, of Oldham, gave him £160 in cash to insure the car, but when the car was later found ‘burned out’, Shah realised that the man had ‘stolen the money’.
Shah, Choudhury and the teenage boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, attended at the victim’s house on Oswald Street on December 5 2021 and told him to ‘get into the car’ and he obliged.
Shah, known as ‘Muzz’, told the teenager to hit him and directed driver Choudhury, known as ‘Chunks’, to drive to the man’s mum’s house to collect his phone. He said it wasn’t there and they instead went back to his house, during which Shah started to ‘properly lay into him’.
“He was slapping him and punching him a number of times,” Mr King said.
“Shah kept the phone and said the man could have it back when he paid £2,500 he said he owed him, and said he could pay the first instalment over the next few days.”
Later that week, the man was in bed when Shah knocked on the door before dragging the man into his car in a headlock. Shah and Choudhury drove and picked up the teenager who got into the back seat alongside the man and also had the man’s phone.
The teenager then proceeded to hit the man. Shah threatened to ‘cut’ the man up unless his mum transferred the money over, Mr King said.
A number of videos were later discovered on Shah’s phone showing the man semi-naked, being attacked. The videos show him moving position and a number of conversations including one where a man tells him: “you son of a b***h, you going to rob me, I’m going to torture you, you son of a b***h.”
In another, a man says: “Son of a b***h, little thief, what are you?”, the victim replies that he is a ‘thief’. The man was detained within the car for two hours before the men called a taxi for him.
A day later, on December 13, police were patrolling on Church Street in Oldham when they saw a Toyota Avensis which was reported as being involved in a kidnap. They attempted to box the car in but it resulted in a chase where speeds of 80-miles-per-hour were reached. The Toyota, driven by Choudhury, went through a red light, drove onto the pavements and grassy areas, but Choudhury and Shah fled on foot.
Choudhury threw a package from the car before was arrested, and the package later was seized, with officers finding 58 wraps of cocaine and 119 wraps of heroin, alongside the fingerprints of Shah.
Both were arrested and gave ‘no comment’ interviews.
Shah was said to have previous convictions for dishonesty and drug dealing, and Choudhury was said to have previous convictions for driving offences.
The teenager, now 16, will be sentenced at the Youth Court at a later date.
Mitigating for Choudhury, Daniel Caulder said his client played a limited role and that he was not present when the man was first taken.
“The understanding I have is that the Crown’s case is that by virtue of the presence of himself, he had no direct involvement in the violence and threats and did not encourage the same,” he said.
“He is somebody held in high regard in work and in the local community. He was part way through a degree at university when he found himself involved in this lifestyle.
“He accepts responsibility and states he is no longer the person who got into that car in December 2021.”
Of Shah, Mark Fireman said: “This is serious offending. He is desperate to know his fate, serve his sentence, put this behind him and start again.
“”His behaviour is shameful and disgusting - the violence and humiliation the victim must have suffered.”
He added that the attack was not of ‘extreme violence’.
Sentencing, Recorder Philip Barnes said it was a ‘sustained incident’ where ‘violence, humiliation and degradation’ were used.
Shah, of Frederick Street, Oldham, was jailed for five years and four months for offences of ABH, kidnap, false imprisonment and possession with intent to supply class A drugs.
Choudhury, of Lacrosse Avenue, Oldham was jailed for four years and four months for offences of false imprisonment and possession with intent to supply class A drugs.
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