Wolverhampton Crown Court Sentencing Results

On 15 August 2025, a violent early-morning clash erupted on a residential street in Bilston. Weapons including scaffolding poles, swords and machetes were used. A white Ford Focus was rammed by a silver Mercedes E Class and then blocked in by a red Ford Fiesta, sparking a fight that left three people needing hospital treatment. Harpreet Singh was among those involved. Officers and Police Dog Ray detained the men after a vehicle pursuit turned into a foot chase.

On 19 December 2023, Zafran Sajad and three others set upon a man walking through Wednesbury. The victim was stabbed multiple times in the chest and arms before escaping and calling for help. Sajad left in a car and was traced via a £26 pizza takeaway transaction on his bank account and CCTV. He was aged 21, of Walsall.

Keltonjay Martin, 24, from Dudley, was involved in a coordinated car theft conspiracy across the Black Country between April and May 2023. He discussed targets on group messaging apps, carried out surveillance on potential cars, and stole vehicles as part of the conspiracy. The stolen cars were then offered for sale, and Martin recorded videos of himself selling the vehicles. He was arrested by West Midlands Police in June 2023.

On April 17, 2025, at around 4pm, Joan Barwick, then 94, was driving into the forecourt of a Tesco Express in the West Midlands. She was looking at a free disabled parking space instead of ahead and failed to see the 78-year-old victim walking her dog on the pavement, which crossed the entrance. Barwick slowed to around 10mph but turned right into the garage, striking the victim with her vehicle, causing catastrophic head injuries. The victim died the following day in hospital. The incident was captured on CCTV.

Ramal Briem, an Iraqi man living in Wolverhampton, worked with an organised crime gang to illegally bring Vietnamese nationals to the UK by arranging spaces on small boats from France. He charged an alleged crime boss £1,500 for each migrant. The plot involved bringing migrants to eastern Europe on work visas, then moving them to France for the final small boat journey to the UK, where they would disappear within the Vietnamese community. The scheme was exposed in September 2023 through a chat on the alleged boss's mobile phone, seized after his arrest in April 2024 on a French extradition warrant.

Nichola Stanley, 40, from Sandwell, was part of a group that surrounded 33-year-old Matthew Adams outside a West Bromwich pub on 19 March 2023 following a family celebration. The group repeatedly punched and kicked the victim before continuing the assault in the pub car park, leaving him unconscious and bleeding. The victim later died four and a half days later in hospital, leaving behind two young children.

Kaylee Wright acted as a ghost contractor for an NHS trust and received payments between August 2022 and May 2023, transferring a large portion back to a senior manager's personal account. She claimed the manager paid her the money to prevent him gambling it away, but could not explain why she paid large amounts back almost immediately. The fraud was exposed by an NHS audit after her invoices named organisations where she was not registered.

Matthew Lane acted as a ghost contractor for an NHS trust after approaching a senior manager in need of money. He submitted invoices and received payments between August 2022 and May 2023, then transferred a large portion of the money back to the manager's personal account. The fraud came to light when an audit showed he was not registered to the organisations named on his invoices.

Jassdeep Singh, 21, of Wolverhampton, participated in a horrific machete attack on a man in broad daylight on Barcroft Road in Wolverhampton on February 13, 2025, at around 4.30pm. The victim survived the assault. Singh was identified through extensive CCTV enquiries and arrested later that month.

On February 7, 2025, at about 9.40pm in Spring Head, Wednesbury, police spotted Uzair Mohammed throwing a canister of nitrous oxide from a Vauxhall Astra. Officers pulled the car over and found Mohammed in the passenger seat with a balloon in hand and another canister at his feet. During a search, he confessed to having a gun in his man bag, which was a converted blank-firing gun (unloaded, 10cm barrel, 22cm total length) along with two rounds of compatible ammunition and £550 cash. Mohammed claimed he found the gun and nitrous oxide on a youth in the area, confiscated them intending to hand them in, but inhaled the drug himself. He refused to name the youth to avoid being labelled a snitch.

Sima Khan, 41, of Birmingham, assisted Asaan Hussain after he fired shots at a house in Oldbury on February 17, 2025. They met near Sandwell Valley Country Park and fled to Wales. Police arrested her at her home address in the West Midlands, where a self-loading pistol with live ammunition was found hidden in a handbag under her bed, although it was not the gun used in the shooting.

Asaan Hussain, 30, of Birmingham, drove a stolen black Hyundai along Vicarage Street in Oldbury multiple times before stopping outside an address on February 17, 2025. He exited the vehicle and fired a shotgun twice at the living room and bedroom windows of the property before fleeing. He had parked the vehicle near Vicarage Street on February 13 and took a taxi there shortly before the shooting. After the attack, he met Sima Khan and they fled to Wales. Police arrested him at his home address in the West Midlands.

Renaise Monk was driving a Volkswagen Polo under the influence of cocaine and cannabis when she crashed into a Toyota Corolla at the traffic light controlled junction of Birmingham Road, Walstead Road, and Bell Road on June 8, 2024. She was speeding between 56mph and 64mph in a 30mph residential area, causing the Toyota to shunt into a Nissan, and her vehicle to collide with railings and a traffic light. One passenger in her car was seriously injured, and she abandoned the scene but was arrested nearby. Witnesses saw her discard Nitrous Oxide bottles, which were recovered as evidence.

Stuart Jones rammed a police vehicle and led officers on a high-risk chase after behaving suspiciously in Stratford on June 14, 2025. He drove on the wrong side of the road without lights, made a dangerous U-turn on the M40 towards oncoming traffic, and was eventually stopped by police who broke into his van.

Ali Koka, a 34-year-old Albanian national, illegally entered the UK and was found manning a large cannabis farm worth £300,000 at a property in Tipton. Police discovered 300 cannabis plants across four rooms on May 31, with the electricity bypassed for commercial production. Koka claimed he was transported to the location against his will, locked in, and forced to water the plants, but had no prior convictions and was arrested just three days after arriving in the UK.

Naomi Peate breached a five-year restraining order by visiting her mother's home on February 19, 2025, banging on the door, yelling for money, and claiming she was ill. Her mother locked herself in her bedroom out of fear. Peate kicked the door and was arrested after police arrived. During her police interview, she assaulted an officer by slamming her hands on the table, grabbing a notebook, and lunging across the table. On March 30, 2025, while intoxicated, she took her mother's mobile phone under false pretenses and traded it for cigarettes on April 2, 2025. She has a history of drug use and mental health issues, including schizophrenia, and was not managing her medication properly.

Kyle Henry, a 32-year-old dad-of-four, attacked the taxi driver after a minor collision on August 8, 2023, in Park Lane, Wednesbury. Henry took exception to the taxi driver photographing the van's registration plate, exited the vehicle, and punched the taxi driver in the face with both hands and significant force, causing him to collapse like a sack of potatoes. The taxi driver suffered a fractured skull, swollen left eye, fractured right ear drum, and broken nose. He required intensive care, and his wife became his full-time carer. A witness reported the taxi driver bubbling with blood and feared he would die.

Martin Dicken, a 34-year-old Universal Credit claimant, was found with five indecent images of children on his Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, downloaded between January 31 and July 2, 2024. He admitted to having intrusive thoughts about his friends' children and using search terms like 'teen' and 'girl'. Police executed a warrant at his home in Smethwick, in July 2024, leading to his arrest at work.

Sharjeel Shahzad was driving a stolen Porsche Cayenne at speeds up to 51mph in a 30mph zone and on the wrong side of the road when he crashed head-on into a Toyota Auris on Dartmouth Road, Smethwick, on December 14, 2024. The collision killed the two-year-old victim, who was in the back seat being held by his father, and left his mother in a coma with life-changing injuries. Other occupants, including the driver of the Toyota, were also seriously injured. Shahzad fled the scene, was arrested two days later, and had fingerprints and DNA linking him to the vehicle.

Paul Bagnall was a member of a gang that stole 20 vehicles and committed 11 violent robberies in the Midlands, including Dudley, Wombourne, Stourbridge, Gornal, Wordsley, Rowley Regis and Bilston. The group, armed with an axe and machete, targeted shops during closing hours, threatening staff and demanding cash, starting from August 2021.

Carlton Betts was involved in a gang's criminal activities that included 11 violent robberies and the theft of 20 vehicles across the Midlands, such as Dudley, Wombourne, Stourbridge, Gornal, Wordsley, Rowley Regis and Bilston. The group used weapons like an axe and machete to threaten staff in shops and steal items, with the spree commencing in August 2021.