A court has heard how a man fleeing an unsuccessful robbery held an axe to a taxi driver’s face and told him: “I am going to murder you.”
Ismail Ahmed’s terrifying threat was made in the midst of what a judge described as “an offending spree” during which he was said to have “terrorised local businesses” by robbing or attempting to rob shops and petrol stations in Bradford armed with an axe or a hammer.
He is now beginning a total of eight years and four months in prison.
Within that total, the longest sentence of five years and seven months comes with an additional three years on licence after a judge at Bradford Crown Court said he represented a danger to the public.
Sentencing 24-year-old Ahmed, of Jesse Street, Fairweather Green, Ms Recorder Ella Anderson said: “I am satisfied that you do present such a risk given the escalation in your behaviour and the pattern of your behaviour.
“This was offending comprising multiple offences using different weapons and making threats of really very serious harm.”
The court heard that Ahmed took a taxi to a Co-op store on High Park Drive on May 11 this year and climbed over the counter to get to the till, threatening staff with an axe before leaving empty-handed.
He then got back into the taxi, which he had told to wait for him close to the door, and told the driver to go.
Ms Recorder Anderson said: “You became aggressive, telling him to go faster and asking if the car had a tracker.
“You pulled out the axe. You put your arm around the driver’s neck and held the axe to his face. You said: ‘I’m going to murder you.’
Ahmed (Image: West Yorkshire Police)
“You threatened to take his vehicle. The driver managed to put his hand between his own neck and the axe blade.
“The driver managed eventually to stop and run from the car. You got into the driver’s seat, but the driver had taken the keys.
“You ran off and were arrested later that day.”
The court heard that the axe incident represented the culmination of two days of incidents that had begun at 7.30am on May 9 when Ahmed robbed an Esso petrol station on Wakefield Road.
He told a shop worker that he would stab him unless he complied with his demands, and escaped with £400.
At 6pm the same day he went to a Premier shop on Beacon Road and told staff he had “something on him” and to open the till.
There was a brief struggle, and Ahmed fled when told a panic alarm had been activated.
He went directly from the Premier shop to a Morrison’s Daily on Allerton Road where he pulled out a hammer and threatened staff that he would “smash it over their heads”.
He made off with £842 in cash and cigarettes.
He was identified from CCTV footage.
On May 11 at 5.50am he went into a Premier shop on Legrams Lane and pulled out an axe, telling the shop assistant to open the till.
Ninety minutes later he returned to the Premier shop on Beacon Road, which he had visited two days earlier, and climbed over the counter whilst brandishing an axe.
He pushed a female staff member out of the way and tried to prise open the till.
There was a tussle and he gave the woman “a countdown” before running from the scene after a member of the public called the police.
He then went to the Co-op by taxi.
He tried to run off whilst being arrested and claimed to have taken a drug overdose.
In an interview he made “no comment” to many questions, denied the offences, and refused to continue with the interview.
He also refused to provide a sample for Class A drug-testing.
He later pleaded guilty to ten offences: two robberies, five attempted robberies, possession of an offensive weapon, possession of a bladed article, and refusing a drug test.
He had four previous convictions for 11 offences including for conspiracy to rob, for which he received 67 months in a young offender institution.
He had been released five months prior to carrying out his crime spree.
In mitigation, the court heard that Ahmed suffered from complex personality traits that included emotional unstable personality disorder.
He had suffered childhood trauma and domestic violence that had affected his schooling and which he had not really recovered from.
The court heard that there was a history of self-harm in Ahmed’s background and that at the time of his arrest he had said he wanted to kill himself.
The court heard that there was a link between his substance abuse and his mental health issues, and that matters “degenerated” after he moved back to Bradford from supported accommodation outside the area.
He had expressed remorse and regret but “lacked the full appreciation of the psychological trauma that he will have put his victims through.”
He was said to need “sustained and co-ordinated intervention”.
Sentencing him, Ms Recorder Anderson told Ahmed: “These were extremely serious offences using weapons to make threats and instil fear in those you encountered.”
She ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the axe that was seized.