Tower Hamlets three were handling stolen phones

IT WAS BAD NEWS on Friday, 13th July for three men from Tower Hamlets as they were sentenced for their parts in a ring of thieves who were stealing mobile phones and selling them on in local shops.

•Iftehar Ahmed, 38, of Tarling Street in Shadwell was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years imprisonment.
•Zakir Hossain, 41, of Hannibal Road, Stepney was jailed for eight-and-a-half years.
•Munna Miah, 31, of Manchester Road, Isle of Dogs, was jailed for 16 months, suspended for two years. He also has to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

The three had appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court on 9th May to face charges of conspiracy to received stolen goods between 1st May and 27th November 2016. They had all pleaded guilty.

The three were linked with a group of eleven men who were found guilty last December of 17 aggravated burglaries of mobile phone shops in North and East London. It was estimated that mobiles and tablets valued at over £1 million and severe damage was caused to the shops which were targetted.

The gang sold on some of the stolen goods via the Vallance Super Store (which was owned by Ahmed) on Dunbridge Street and the A to Z phone service (owned by Ahmed and Hossain) on Whitechapel Road. The balance are thought to have been shipped out to Bangladesh.

Miah, who is also Ahmed’s brother-in-law, used a private hire vehicle to ferry the stolen goods between the thieves and the two shops.

The gang was broken up on 2nd March, when a substantial police investigation ended with search warrants being executed on a number of residential and business premises. Evidence collected by police included phones on sale in the Tower Hamlets shops which were identified as having been stolen from retailers who had fitted them with tracking devices. Handwritten notes were also found in A to Z phone services which confirmed that the shop was selling on phones obtained in the burglaries, and personal phone records showed that Ahmed, Hossain and Miah had been in touch with those who had carried out the burlgaries.

Detective Sergeant Danny Watts of the Violent Crime Task Force said, “This robust investigation has seen the dismantling and imprisonment of a significant number of members of a violent criminal gang. These handlers all worked together with the gang to target a chain of mobile phone shops across central and east London and to profit from stolen goods. They did not care about the violence they inflicted upon security staff or the damage caused to premises. Their behaviour was truly shocking. If you commit these offences we will find you and bring you to justice.”

•Read more about it:
Isle of Dogs dealers sentenced
Six years for Spitalfields robbery fail