A barrister who helped plot a revenge attack on behalf of a criminal client has been jailed for three years and three months, following an investigation by West Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit into a violent gang feud in Kirklees.
Samreen Akhtar, 38, was working as a barrister when her client Tabish Ali was shot and injured on Blacker Road, Huddersfield, on 14 September 2021. The following day, she was recorded on a phone call to Ali discussing a plan to track down whoever was responsible and have them seriously hurt.
Ali was later charged, in October 2021, with the murder of Jamal Nedd, who had been shot dead outside his Ripon Avenue home in Huddersfield on 19 December 2020 while driving his mother to work. He was convicted alongside two other men and jailed for life in July 2022; the trial heard the killing stemmed from an escalating turf war between rival drug gangs that had involved repeated violence and firearms incidents since 2018, with the 2021 shooting of Ali believed to be connected to the same feud.
A majority verdict
Akhtar was arrested in February 2022 and charged the following March with encouraging or assisting an indictable offence — specifically, inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent — under the Serious Crime Act 2007. She denied the charge but was convicted by majority verdict after a five-day trial this June. She was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court Monday 7 September.
Detective Inspector Paul Hutchinson, who led the investigation, said: “As a professional working in the criminal justice system, Samreen Akhtar would have been acutely aware of her legal and moral responsibilities, but she chose to act outside of those to plot revenge with a dangerous criminal involved in a violent gang feud which included the brutal execution of a rival, for which he was later convicted. In doing so, she became a criminal herself and showed a complete disregard for the standards that are expected of those in the legal profession, and also for the significant negative impact that gang-related violence and criminality have on our communities.
“West Yorkshire Police remains firmly committed to targeting serious and organised criminals under our ongoing Programme Precision initiative, and we will continue to relentlessly pursue those involved, no matter what their role or occupation, to keep our communities safe.”
