Bank worker led double life as bank robber

Tuesday 21st January 2020 18:50 EST
 

To a passer-by Sajjad Hussain appeared to be a hard working family man who had a full-time job at an HSBC call centre and lived in a semi-detached house in Salford. But in reality he was leading a double life. In late January last year he lied to his bosses about one of his grandparents having passed away and used the day's compassionate leave to take part in a cash-in-transit raid at the NatWest Bank in Halifax.

Four weeks earlier he had told his bosses that his wife was ill so he could take part in a robbery at a cash and carry in Longsight but the robbery in West Yorkshire was to be the last of 11 carried out by the Oldham -based gang during a short but prolific crime spree. 

According to reports on January 31st 2019 just before 11am  Hussain and three accomplices, Abubakir Iqbal, Anas Khan and Shazad Mahmood, ambushed a security guard who was delivering cash to the Waterhouse Street branch of the bank. After threatening the security guard with a hammer they sped off in a stolen Golf with £25,000. Following a police chase the Golf went out of control at speed on a sharp bend and was left straddled over a bridge wall hanging 20ft above a river. Iqbal, Khan and Mahmood ran off but Hussain was left dazed in the the Golf before all four were captured near the crash scene.

Iqbal, and Hussain, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to rob but were convicted by a jury. Mahmood, and Khan, pleaded guilty with Khan also admitting to handling stolen goods in relation to the raid on his salvage yard.


comments powered by Disqus



to the free, weekly Asian Voice email newsletter