Black Country criminals locked up in October for murder, burglary, loan sharking and more

The Express & Star has compiled a list of some of those who have been 'taken down' from court rooms in the region, for offences such as rape, drug dealing, dangerous driving, burglary and much more.

Some have only received sentences lasting a few weeks, with the longest being life with a minimum of 28 years in jail, meaning some of those on the list won't be eligible for parole until the year 2049.

Man who raped teenage girl

Sheikh Mahmood used a social media platform to talk with the teenage girl before arranging to meet her and then raping her in a car park.

The 27-year-old of Whitehall Road, West Bromwich, was subsequently charged and following a four-day trial at in August, was found unanimously guilty of rape by the jury. He also admitted supplying a controlled drug of class B, cannabis, to the same girl on the night of the offence.

Appearing at Warwick Crown Court on Monday he was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Sex offences at school

On October 3, a 73-year-old man was jailed for 27 years for non-recent sexual offences against children at a former boarding school in the West Midlands in the 1960s and 70s.

Keith Figes, aged 73, of Breach Close in Bourton, Dorset, was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to 11 counts - six of which are specimen offences.

The offences took place between 1966 and 1974 at Berrow Wood School in the village of Pendock, on the border of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.

The school housed boys aged 10 to 18, many of which were considered to have behavioural or learning difficulties.

Train flasher

Outraged passengers challenged Tabrez Ali, 39, when he took his trousers off on a train in front of a mother and child.

Ali was on the the Manchester to Peterborough service on Tuesday, October 3, when he sat opposite the mother and child and removed his trousers to expose himself. Unnerved the mother moved but Tabrez followed her.

It was then passengers intervened with a man shouting "leave them alone" as others shepherded his victims to the back of the train as they approached Wolverhampton.

Two days later Ali, of Vere Road, Peterborough, pleaded guilty to exposure and trespass at Black Country Magistrates’ Court, Brierley Hill.

He was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison, ordered to pay a victim surcharge fee of £154 and to sign the sex offenders register for seven years.

Rapist still a danger to women

Perry Marsh was handed a seven-and-a-half year immediate jail sentence with an extended licence period of three years when he appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court on October 5.

The 33-year-old, of Avon Road, Kidderminster, had denied raping a woman in Telford in August 2021 but was found guilty after a trial.

Judge Peter Barrie told Marsh he was treating him as a dangerous offender.

"You pose a significant risk of carrying out further offences against women," he said.

The judge also imposed a restraining order saying March must not try to contact the woman, directly or indirectly for 15 years and barred him from working with children.

Mr Stefan Kolodynski, prosecuting, said that in a victim impact statement the victim said she still had flashbacks from the night and had contemplated ending her life.

Dudley cocaine dealer

Amer Ishtiaq, of St Marks Road in Lye, is now serving a jail term of three years and six months after pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.

The 35-year-old was sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on October 6 after police identified him as the controller of an operation to supply drugs in and around Dudley.

Officers searched Ishtiaq’s Lye home and another address in Birmingham they identified as being linked to his activities. During the search, offices discovered evidence, including a knife, which confirmed their suspicions around him dealing drugs. Valuable high-performance cars believed to be the gain from his criminal lifestyle were also seized.

Loan shark pensioner

A loan shark pensioner who ran an illegal lending operation in Staffordshire, making thousands of pounds from hundreds of loans, has been jailed for 32 months.

Stafford Crown Court heard Robert Norman Phillips, aged 75, lent more than £370,000 over 16 years and took repayments of more than £570,000.

The court heard many of his victims were women who said he had made repeated lewd and inappropriate comments when he collected cash and even suggested ‘payment in kind’ if they were struggling to pay.

Phillips, of Creswell Farm Drive, Stafford, admitted two charges of money lending between November 2006 and November 2022 as well as a charge of concealing the proceeds of his crime. He was sentenced to 10 months for each of the money lending offences and 32 months for the third offence, all to run concurrently.

Shoddy gas fitter

Daniel Mountain put customers at risk by illegally carrying out work on homes.

The 36-year-old carried out work in Dudley, Oldbury and Newport in Shropshire between 2020 and 2021 under the pretence of being Corgi registered and even when he had a prohibition order against him specifically banning him from installing and servicing boilers and radiators.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Mountain broke the order when carrying out work at the home of David Trueman in Oldbury and a property in Newport where he used the name of a company he had previously worked for called Elite Gas, passing it off as his to install a boiler.

He was jailed for two years.

Sexual relationship with teenage girl

A man who had sexual activity with an underage teenage girl was jailed for 32 months at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in early October.

Stuart Barratt, aged 32, of Highfield Road, Burntwood, admitted two charges of sexual activity with the girl in Mid Wales in 2020.

Mitigating, Marian Lewis said Barratt was in a bad place at the time of the incidents – he was suffering from depression, he was in debt and he did not like his job.

Sentencing, Recorder Dyfed Llion Thomas told Barratt: “You should have known better. You were the adult and you took advantage of a child sexually.”

He said the disparity in age, some grooming behaviour and sexual activity features were aggravating features.

Sexual assault on train

A Smethwick who sexually assaulted a woman on a train from Birmingham to London after sitting in the aisle seat, blocking her in.

In his police interview, Mukhan Singh, of Bearwood Road, Smethwick, claimed the victim “wanted something done to her”. The victim recorded footage of Singh as he prepared to leave the train at Leamington Spa, before reporting what happened to a member of staff.

The British Transport Police said it was a "brazen and targeted attack" on a young woman who was travelling on her own and "had every right to a safe journey".

The 39-year-old was jailed for 16 weeks at Warwick Crown Court after admitting sexual assault.

Dangerous driver on wrong side of road

Manjinder Singh, aged 29, drove at speeds of up to 50mph along 30mph roads in Tipton, Wednesbury and Moxley on May 9 after failing to pull over for pursuing police.