Man who murdered uncle and hid body in bank jailed
A drug dealer who kidnapped and murdered his uncle before hiding his body in a bank vault has been jailed for more than 34 years.
Asghar Badshah, a 39-year-old bus driver from Bradford, was taken to a disused bank on Commercial Street in Batley by his nephew, Tahir Syed, on 30 November 2019 over a missing sum of money, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Mr Badshah was beaten to death and his body was found behind a false wall in a vault four weeks later.
Syed, 42, of no fixed address, was found guilty of murder, conspiracy to kidnap and drugs conspiracy offences on Monday and sentenced at the same court earlier.
Syed and his associates had imported tonnes of cocaine and heroin to the UK in more than 30 shipments between 2016 to 2021, the court heard.
Judge Thomas Bayliss KC said Mr Badshah had been asked to "hide a large amount of cash" by Syed, who then suspected Mr Badshah of stealing £600,000 from him.
The court was told how Mr Badshah was kidnapped from his mother's address in Mayo Road, Bradford, in a Mercedes at around 01:35 GMT on the day of the murder and taken to the bank, where he was beaten with a metal rod.
Syed lied to his family, the court heard, telling them that his uncle was still alive, knowing that in reality his naked body had been stored in an old vault in the disused bank.
Judge Bayliss said: "I am quite sure that your primary purpose, was to detain and interrogate Asghar Badshah, in order to ascertain where the missing money was."
Syed was jailed for a minimum term of 34 years and 153 days, taking into account almost four years already spent behind bars since being extradited from Turkey.
Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
West Yorkshire Police
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
2 days ago
- New York Times
A Man Drove a Car Down Rome's Spanish Steps. It Did Not Go Great.
What's the quickest way down Rome's Spanish Steps? Definitely not by car. Before dawn on Tuesday morning, an 80-year-old man behind the wheel of a Mercedes A-Class tried to navigate the sedan down the iconic steps, which are closed to vehicles, according to Rome's police department. The car made it part of the way down but got stuck, the authorities said. Nobody was injured and the police did not announce any damage to the monument. The driver tested negative for alcohol, the police said in a statement. The police did not identify the driver or say where he was from, but did release a photo of him, standing by the vehicle and dressed in a suit, talking to a police officer. According to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, the man was in a state of confusion. A video of the episode circulating online shows the car slowly making its way down the steps. The fire department later removed the car from the steps with a crane. Sowad Mujibullah was working a night shift at a nearby hotel just before 4 a.m. on Tuesday when he heard a loud sound and saw the car come down the steps. He initially thought that it was part of a movie shoot, but 'then I realized, no, it was not like that, because nobody was there.' He captured video of the incident, which he called shocking. The steps are one of the most historic places in Italy, he said in a phone interview, adding: 'It should not be destroyed by these crazy things.' Destroying or damaging a monument or property that has significant value in Rome is punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of more than 2,000 euros ($2,300). Prohibitions against vehicles on the Spanish Steps, Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti in Italian, have not prevented other incidents. In 2022, American tourists pushed an electric scooter down the steps, causing 25,000 euros in damage. The same year, a man drove a Maserati sports car down the steps after taking a wrong turn.
CNN
3 days ago
- CNN
Elderly man drives down Rome's Spanish Steps and gets stuck
An 80-year-old man has told police he was 'wrong' to drive down Rome's famed Spanish Steps, after firefighters had to recover his vehicle from the landmark in the early hours of Tuesday. The man was not injured in the incident but he was nonetheless taken to the hospital, where he tested negative for both drug and alcohol consumption, city police said in a statement. The driver, who has not been identified, told officers he was 'going to work' and had taken a wrong turn, according to Italian media reports. It is unclear if he was using a GPS device. The gray Mercedes-Benz A-Class car got stuck halfway down the 18th-century staircase around 4 a.m. on Tuesday, the Italian Fire Brigade said in a statement. The car had been stopped by police officers who were patrolling the area. The fire department said it had to use a crane at the foot of the steps to lift the vehicle off the stairway. Some damage to the vehicle was visible, but it is unclear whether that was the result of Tuesday's incident. The steps are currently closed to the public. The normal procedure when Rome's historic monuments are involved in an incident is for archaeologists to inspect them for damage. The man had a valid driver's license, according to Italian media. Under Italian law, drivers over the age of 80 are obliged to renew their license every two years and undergo a medical examination, which includes basic cognition questions. Back in 2022, a Saudi man tangled with the law after he drove a Maserati down the Spanish Steps. He was charged with aggravated damage to cultural heritage and monuments after the car caused fractures to the 16th and 29th steps of the right-hand flight rising up from the Piazza di Spagna. That same year two American tourists were fined and briefly banned from Rome's city center after damaging the steps with electric scooters. The steps owe their name to the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, which is hosted in a palazzo in the square below. A two-year, 1.5 million-euro ($1.7 million) restoration of the landmark — which has appeared in numerous movies, most notably 1953's 'Roman Holiday,' starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck — was completed in 2015.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Los Angeles mayor lifts curfew imposed after immigration raids, protests
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday lifted a curfew imposed on part of the city's downtown to curb crime in the wake of raids on undocumented migrants that prompted protests. The restriction on people's movements went into place last Tuesday, affecting about one square mile of the city's downtown between 8 p.m. local time (0300 GMT on Wednesday) and 6 a.m. the following morning. On Monday, Bass said the curfew would be reduced, with a later start time of 10pm, as acts of violence, vandalism and looting had markedly declined. On Tuesday, it fully ended. "The curfew, coupled with ongoing crime prevention efforts, have been largely successful in protecting stores, restaurants, businesses and residential communities from bad actors who do not care about the immigrant community," she said in a statement. The heightened immigration enforcement in the city prompted the strongest backlash to President Donald Trump since he returned to power in January, pitting the Republican enacting a campaign pledge to deport immigrants against Democratic leaders in California who opposed the tactics.
