Three years
A barrister who planned with a career criminal client to have a would-be assassin seriously injured has been jailed for three years and three months.
Samreen Akhtar was sentenced this week at Manchester Crown Court after being convicted of encouraging or assisting the inflicting of grievous bodily harm with intent.
Akhtar’s client, Tabish Ali, had been shot and injured on 14 September 2021 as part of a violent feud between rival drugs gang, according to police. The following day, Akhtar was recorded during a telephone call with Ali proposing a plan to find the person responsible for the shooting “so they could be caused serious injuries”.
Akhtar was arrested in February 2022 and charged with encouraging or assisting the inflicting of grievous bodily harm with intent, an offence carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
She pleaded not guilty but was convicted by a majority of the jury following a five-day trial at Manchester Crown Court in June this year. She was sentenced on Monday.
In 2020, the year before she committed the offence, the Bar Council selected Akhtar as one of ten Social Mobility Advocates as part of a drive to increase representation at the bar among people from state educated and deprived backgrounds.
Before becoming a barrister, Akhtar had worked in banking, insurance and at the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department. She later secured pupillage at the Crown Prosecution Service.
Commenting on the sentencing, detective inspector Paul Hutchinson of West Yorkshire Police 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.”
He continued: “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.”
