Jailed in May – The latest criminals sent to prison from Birmingham and beyond

From the brothel keeper to the killer who went shopping in Primark after stabbing his brother to death – these are the latest criminals to be sent to prison. Here we round up the main court cases we covered in May this year which resulted in an immediate jail sentence.

It was a month which saw a number of drug dealers and dangerous drivers put behind bars.

There were a number of high profile cases, including:

• The company directors who failed five workers crushed to death by a collapsing wall
• The fake taxi driver who kidnapped and attacked two women
• The white supremacist with the ‘Big Book of Mischief’
• The disgraced police officer exposed as a rapist
• The paedophile caught while wearing a football shirt

Our list below is made up of the court cases we covered in Birmingham^[2], Solihull^[3], Sutton Coldfield^[4], the Black Country^[5], Staffordshire^[6] and Worcestershire^[7].

Demiah Logan and Jerome Duncan

Demiah Logan and Jerome Duncan (Image: WMP)

Bungling robbers Demiah Logan and Jerome Duncan^[8] stole a cash box, which contained no money. They targeted a security officer at a post office on Trinity Street in Smethwick moments after he had collected £45,000 and stored it safely in his van.

Duncan confronted him, grabbed him by the throat and shoved him into some shelves before snatching the cash box, which was empty. He and accomplice Logan escaped in a Ford Focus which was tracked on CCTV.

Duncan, 29, of no fixed address, and Logan, 25, of Borrowdale Road, Northfield, admitted robbery and were each sentenced to two years. Their plan was described as a ‘bad job and a bad decision’.

Tomsmart Ariwodo

Tomsmart Ariwodo (Image: Birmingham Mail / Live (Court reporter))

Carer Tomsmart Ariwodo^[9] carried out a series of brutal attacks on a vulnerable resident with autism and learning difficulties at a facility in Rotton Park Road, Edgbaston. The incidents occurred within a 10-minute period.

The victim was thrown onto a sofa, manhandled and punched by Ariwodo. The 52-year-old of Gillot Road, Edgbaston admitted ill treatment by a carer and was sentenced to 12 months.

Co-defendant Olowafemi Obiodun had held the victim’s arm during the attack. The 45-year-old of Old Bridge Walk, Sandwell, pleaded guilty to the same offence but received a suspended sentence.

Martin Ward

Martin Ward (Image: Staffordshire Police)

Martin Ward^[10] crashed a Ford Fiesta into a Vauxhall Astra leaving its driver with life changing injuries. The 18-year-old was spotted driving erratically on the M6 but failed to stop for police.

The collision took place on the A449, near to Dunston Business Village, in Penkridge. The victim, in his 60s, sustained a broken neck, back, sternum and ribs as well as damage to his liver, finger and teeth.

Ward, from Oldbury, admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, going equipped for theft of a motor vehicle, aggravated vehicle taking and disqualified driving. He was sentenced to three years and banned from the roads for four years, six months.

Matthew O’Neill, Steven Powell, Ashley Kane, Debbie Simmons, and Mark McHugh

Matthew O’Neill, Steven Powell, Ashley Kane, Debbie Simmons, and Mark McHugh (Image: Staffordshire Police)

A Staffordshire drug gang^[11] involved in supplying 15kg of cocaine in Tamworth worth around £600,000 were busted and jailed. Police spotted Steven Powell delivering two carrier bags to a property in Fazeley with Matthew O’Neill collecting one of them.

Mark McHugh turned up at the same property and went inside before leaving with Ashley Kane. Then a huge haul of cocaine was found at Debbie Simmons’ home as part of the investigation.

Kane, 29, of Fazeley, admitted conspiring to supply cocaine and was jailed for 12 years. Simmons, 54, of Fazely, pleaded guilty to the same offence and received three years.

O’Neill, 54, of Tamworth also confessed to the same charge and was jailed for six years. McHugh, 30, of Glascote, was jailed for three years and nine months after admitting possession with intent to supply cocaine and being concerned in the supply of cocaine.

Powell, 38, of Rednall, Birmingham, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years after admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine and possession with intent to supply cocaine.

Peter Swali

Peter Swali (Image: WMP)

Peter Swali^[12] tried to break into an elderly woman’s home in Shard End twice in two days – but failed both times. He was disturbed on the first occasion only to come back 24 hours later.

When he drove away the second time CCTV captured him leaving in a Volkswagen Golf which was spotted by police a few hours later. He fled officers who brought him to a halt with a stinger, only for the 23-year-old to jump in the back seat. He claimed he was an innocent passenger who had been picked up by a now absent driver who had run away.

Swali, of Yardley Green Road, Bordseley Green, was found guilty of aggravated attempted burglary and attempted burglary. He was sentenced to eight years and three months.

Vaughn Dolphin

Vaughn Dolphin

White supremacist Vaughn Dolphin^[13] was caught with a number of illegal documents including a ‘Big Book of Mischief’. The encrypted files were stored on a USB stick in folders named ‘Boogaloo’ – a term which refers to an apparent ‘race war’. Among them were manuals on how to make weapons.

Dolphin, 20, also filmed himself wearing masks with skull motifs and body armour with Nazi ‘SS’ logos on. Another video showed him mixing chemicals in the kitchen which resulted in a ‘f***ing awesome’ pink fireball, he claimed joyfully.

Dolphin, of Walsall Wood Road, Aldridge^[14], was found guilty of six offences of possessing a document containing terrorist information, two counts of possessing explosive substances, two counts of disseminating a terrorist publication and one offence of possessing a firearm without a licence. He was sentenced to eight years and six months detention in a young offenders institution.

Paul Jones

Paul Jones (Image: WMP)

Prolific shoplifter Paul Jones^[15] targeted Asda and Co-op stores in Chelmsley Wood. He stole electrical items, food and drink as he struck almost once a week to fund his drug habit.

Jones, of Kington Gardens, Forebridge, Solihull, admitted multiple offences of theft from a shop and was sentenced to 36 weeks. He was also ordered to pay £478.58 in compensation.

Ricardo Cousins

Ricardo Cousins

Ricardo Cousins^[16] fled police during a car chase then tried to hide a loaded gun underneath a van in Antrobus Road in Handsworth. Officers had initially pursued him for the manner in which he was driving.

The 33-year-old sped away and narrowly avoided crashing into other vehicles as he carried out dangerous overtaking manoeuvres and failed to give way at junctions. Cousins, of Amherst Avenue, Handsworth Wood, was convicted of possessing a prohibited firearm and had admitted dangerous driving.

He was sentenced to nine years and banned from driving for five years, six months.

Michael Darbyshire

Michael Darbyshire

West Mercia Police officer Michael Darbyshire^[17] was found guilty of rape and multiple sexual assaults. The offences took place between 2018 and 2019.

He groped one woman at the beer garden of a pub. Darbyshire then drove her home drunk and said: ‘come on I haven’t finished with you’, before he forcefully raped her. He attacked another woman after meeting her on Match.com.

The 57-year-old was suspended from the force which confirmed it would accelerate a misconduct process following his conviction and imprisonment. Darbyshire was sentenced to 14 years.

Adam and Wayne Judd

Adam Judd and Wayne Judd (Image: WMP)

Predatory uncle and nephew Adam and Wayne Judd^[18] were convicted of historic child sexual offences. Adam, 26, was due for release from prison for a separate sex crime but confessed to further illegal activity, sparking a fresh investigation.

He was supposedly ‘tired of holding it back’ and wrote a letter confessing to things he had done between 2011 and 2014. It also led police to question his uncle Wayne, 30.

Adam Judd went on to admit 11 counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault and was sentenced to five years and nine months – a reduced term due to the seven-year punishment he was already serving. Wayne Judd, of Marston Road, pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and was sentenced to 11 years, six months.

Harminder Gill

Harminder Gill

Harminder Gill^[19] stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from his employer to live a jet-setting lifestyle like a footballer. The 27-year-old from Wednesbury splurged out on sports cars, private suites at London’s Shard and holidays to Ibiza over a two-year period.

Working as a payroll worker for a Warwickshire firm he exploited a glitch in the system to send £350,000 to six different accounts he set up. Gill, of Hawkeswood Drive, admitted fraud and was sentenced to four years, six months.

Matthew Badham

Matthew Badham (Image: West Midlands Police)

Matthew Badham^[20] was seen driving a £20,000 BMW within hours of it being stolen from a driveway in Sutton Coldfield where the keys had been removed from a cabinet close to the front door. Later, he was a passenger in the same car when it crashed into two other vehicles during a chase.

In between those two incidents the 36-year-old rowed with a man in the street over money and took his car keys. Badham, from Selly Oak, pleaded guilty to driving whilst disqualified, driving without insurance and breaching a suspended sentence. He was found guilty after trial of aggravated vehicle taking and theft. He was sentenced to 26 weeks.

Martin Islip, Lawson O’Neill and Anthony Stewart

Martin Islip, Lawson O’Neill and Anthony Stewart (Image: West Midlands Police)

Martin Islip, Lawson O’Neill and Anthony Stewart^[21] were involved in the theft of 22 cars worth nearly half a million pounds across the Midlands. Islip and O’Neill carried out keyless car thefts and mainly targeted Fords, while Stewart’s role was to collect and transport some of the stolen vehicles to Scotland.

All three were linked to car thefts in Chelmsley Wood, Shard End, Yardley, Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Kitts Green. They were convicted of conspiracy to steal cars. Islip, 34, of Wheatstone Road, Wolverhampton, was given five-and-a-half years in prison.

O’Neill, 32, of Over Green Drive, Birmingham, was sentenced to three years while Stewart, 39, of Cedar Road, Glasgow, was handed 18 months consecutive to an earlier sentence.

Charlie and Ashley Murphy

Charlie Murphy and Ashley Murphy

Drug dealer brothers Charlie and Ashley Murphy^[22] became ‘absent’ dads and boyfriends as they were both jailed. Older sibling Charlie ran the ‘AJ’ County Line in Birmingham using two Nokia phones over a three-month period.

The 26-year-old from St. Margarets Avenue, Ward End^[23], admitted two counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs. As he was sentenced to four years, six months he sarcastically said to the judge: “For holding a phone? Sweet.”

There was no evidence Ashley was directly involved in the AJ line but he was caught with more than 60 drug wraps. The 32-year-old of Collingbourne Avenue, Hodge Hill^[24], admitted possession with intent to supply class A drugs and received two years and nine months.

Jordan Barnard

Jordan Barnard (Image: Staffs Police)

Reckless motorcyclist Jordan Barnard^[25] led police on a road chase after he was spotted riding dangerously without a crash helmet around Chasewater Country Park. The 25-year-old then sped off through Brownhills, Walsall Wood, Burntwood and Chasetown and strayed onto the wrong side of the road on the A5.

Barnard, from Walsall Wood, admitted dangerous driving, driving without a licence or insurance and failing to provide a specimen for analysis. He was sentenced to 12 months and banned from driving for two years.

Barrie King

Barrie King

Brazen burglar Barrie King^[26] targeted five properties in two weeks. He struck three times in 24 hours in Acocks Green including breaking into a restaurant where he was confronted by staff.

He burgled two further properties on separate dates. The 41-year-old of no fixed address, admitted four burglaries, attempted robbery, theft and assault. He was sentenced to five years and four months.

Jay Patel

Jay Patel (Image: West Midlands Police)

Speeding driver Jay Patel^[27] caused a head-on crash near HMP Birmingham which left him in a coma, seriously injured three others and wrote off two cars. He lost control of his Vauxhall Corsa, which was on mismatched tyres including one which had no tread in the middle.

The 26-year-old swerved across Winson Green Road and into a Seat Ibiza driven by Gerome Burton, who was returning from working a security shift at the Turtle Bay bar. Patel could not be tested for intoxication at the time due to the amount of blood he had lost.

He admitted three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. Patel of Alfred Road, Handsworth, was sentenced to 29 months and banned from driving for 70 days.

Muhammad Iqbal

Muhammad Iqbal (Image: CPS)

Crown Prosecution Service worker Muhammad Iqbal^[28] accessed case files for serious crimes without authorisation. The 27-year-old was based in Birmingham as an administrative and paralegal assistant.

After accessing the files he immediately contacted people connected to the defendants. In one instance he provided false details of a driver of his brother’s car to speed enforcement officials.

Iqbal admitted misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice. He was sentenced to three years and nine months.

David and Dean Tromans

David and Dean Tromans (Image: West Midlands Police)

Tromans brothers David and Dean^[29] broke a man’s jaw as they robbed and attacked him in Stourbridge town centre. The siblings targeted a fellow drug user after striking up a conversation with him.

Dean, 34, struck him to the side of the face causing him to the fall to the ground where he continued to punch him. Meanwhile David, 36, took his cash and mobile phone. Both were convicted of assault and robbery and sentenced to six years and three months.

Jie Ke Wang

Jie Ke Wang (Image: WMP)

Brothel keeper Jie Ke Wang^[30] operated a £500-a-week nationwide callout racket to meet the demand for prostitutes. The 48-year-old ran his network from his flat at Masshouse Plaza in Birmingham city centre.

He trafficked a dozen women around the UK while others were rotated to keep the supply ‘fresh’ for clients. Wang was previously jailed for 18 months following an undercover police sting but received an additional four years and five months.

He admitted arranging travel of someone with a view to exploitation.

Lenville Waite

Lenville Waite (Image: WMP)

Lenville Waite^[31] stabbed his older brother Clifton Waite, 61, to death during a row at their home in Waverley Road, Small Heath. The siblings had a ‘clash of personalities’ and did not get on.

Lenville, 59, was staying at the home as a bail condition but Clifton did not want him there. On the day of the killing, November 7, they had argued about a news article allegedly linking Lenville to an incident at a Lidl shop.

After stabbing his brother he fled the home, stayed in a homeless shelter before travelling to Coventry where he purchased new trainers from Deichmann and clothes from Primark.

Lenville was found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 17 years.

Lee Greenhill

Lee Greenhill (Image: West Mercia Police)

Paedophile Lee Greenhill^[32] committed a string of child sex offences. The 46-year-old, of St Cecilia Close, Kidderminster was photographed wearing a Wolverhampton Wanderers shirt after police arrested him.

He had tried to engage in sexual communication with children online using photos of other young men and pretending to be a rich businessman.

Greenhill admitted three counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, possession of indecent images of children, attempting to cause a child to look at images of sexual activity, distributing an indecent photograph of a child, possession of images portraying sexual acts with an animal and breaching a sexual harm prevention order. He was sentenced to three years.

Wayne Hawkeswood and Graham Woodhouse

Wayne Hawkeswood and Graham Woodhouse

Company directors Wayne Hawkeswood and Graham Woodhouse^[33] were jailed for health and safety failures after a 45-tonne wall collapsed and killed five workers. The tragic incident occurred when the 3.6m tall structure gave way at a metal recycling site in Nechells, crushing the men working next to it.

Hawkeswood, Woodhouse and the firms they ran – Hawkeswood Metal Recycling and Ensco 10101, known as Shredmet – all of Riverside Works, Trevor Street, Nechells, were convicted of offences under the Health and Safety At Work Act.

Hawkeswood, 53, and Woodhouse, 55, were both sentenced to nine months. Hawkeswood Metal Recycling was fined £1 million, while Shredmet was fined £600,000.

Thasawar Iqbal

Thasawar Iqbal (Image: West Midlands Police)

Thasawar Iqbal pretended to be a taxi driver to kidnap and sexually attack two women. The 41-year-old hunted lone females leaving Birmingham nightclubs in the early hours of the morning.

The attacks, which occurred seven months apart, were described as ‘pre-planned’ and ‘opportunistic’ by police who branded Iqbal ‘predatory’. He sexually assaulted the first victim after picking her up in an intoxicated state in December 2021. She escaped and Iqbal was arrested and released on bail.

He was still under investigation when he struck in July 2022, approaching another vulnerable woman in the same way. He drove her to a pub car park where he raped her multiple times. Iqbal, of Birchdale Road, Erdington^[34], was found guilty of two counts of kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence, two counts of rape, one count of attempted rape, two counts of sexual assault and one offence of assault by penetration.

He was sentenced to 17 years with an extended five-year licence.

Click the link^[35] to sign up for a free email newsletter to get the latest court stories straight to your inbox.

First picture of crying driver who injured five and wrecked two cars in crash^[36]

Fake taxi driver who kidnapped and raped woman after prowling nightclubs jailed^[37]

Intoxicated train driver reported himself for missing red light^[38]

References

1. ^{^} Families at war – the bitter feuds that escalated out of control (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
2. ^{^} Birmingham (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
3. ^{^} Solihull (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
4. ^{^} Sutton Coldfield (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
5. ^{^} Black Country (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
6. ^{^} Staffordshire (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
7. ^{^} Worcestershire (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
8. ^{^} Demiah Logan and Jerome Duncan (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
9. ^{^} Tomsmart Ariwodo (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
10. ^{^} Martin Ward (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
11. ^{^} drug gang (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
12. ^{^} Peter Swali (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
13. ^{^} Vaughn Dolphin (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
14. ^{^} Aldridge (Aldridge)
15. ^{^} Paul Jones (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
16. ^{^} Ricardo Cousins (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
17. ^{^} Michael Darbyshire (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
18. ^{^} Adam and Wayne Judd (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
19. ^{^} Harminder Gill (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
20. ^{^} Matthew Badham (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
21. ^{^} Martin Islip, Lawson O’Neill and Anthony Stewart (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
22. ^{^} Charlie and Ashley Murphy (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
23. ^{^} Ward End (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
24. ^{^} Hodge Hill (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
25. ^{^} Jordan Barnard (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
26. ^{^} Barrie King (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
27. ^{^} Jay Patel (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
28. ^{^} Muhammad Iqbal (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
29. ^{^} David and Dean (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
30. ^{^} Jie Ke Wang (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
31. ^{^} Lenville Waite (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
32. ^{^} Lee Greenhill (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
33. ^{^} Wayne Hawkeswood and Graham Woodhouse (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
34. ^{^} Erdington (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
35. ^{^} link (data.reachplc.com)
36. ^{^} First picture of crying driver who injured five and wrecked two cars in crash (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
37. ^{^} Fake taxi driver who kidnapped and raped woman after prowling nightclubs jailed (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
38. ^{^} Intoxicated train driver reported himself for missing red light (www.birminghammail.co.uk)