‘Stud Badboy’ Yassar Yaqub shot dead by police on M62 posed for photo with drug kingpin pal – who is now serving 10 years in prison for gun offences
SHOT Yassar Yaqub poses with a drug kingpin pal – who is now serving almost 10 years for gun and drug offences.
Powerfully built Ashley Paul George, 26, was a major supplier of drugs in Yaqub’s hometown.
Yaqub smiles for the camera in a series of photographs with George and other men in Huddersfield, West Yorks.
And other photographs of Yaqub show him with another pal and two women in a night spot, and posing for the camera in front of pricey high powered cars – wearing designer clothes and an expensive-looking watch.
Huddersfield drug dealer George was originally jailed for five years and nine months at Leeds Crown Court.
But Solicitor-General Robert Buckland QC attacked George’s punishment as "unduly lenient".
And three Appeal Court judges agreed with him, upping George’s sentence to nine and a half years in January last year.
Police searched George’s home in July 2014, Lady Justice Macur told the court.
They found a handgun in the living room as well as bullets, shotgun cartridges and skunk cannabis.
A CS gas canister was discovered in his bedroom and more than 5,600 ecstasy tablets worth £2,800 in the kitchen as well as some heroin.
Text messages on his phone were "consistent with drug dealing", said the judge.
George admitted possession of the ecstasy tablets with intent to supply, possession of the heroin and cannabis and the CS gas canister.
He was convicted of having the gun and ammunition.
RELATED STORIES
George had a previous conviction for possession of ammunition and cocaine, the court heard.
Joel Smith, for the Solicitor-General, argued the sentencing judge "erred" in letting George off so lightly.
And Robin Frieze, for George, accepted that it was "as the judge described it, a merciful sentence".
Urging the court not to interfere, however, he added: “This is a young man who has never been to prison before and this was on any view a substantial prison sentence.”
However, Lady Justice Macur ruled that George should have received consecutive sentences for the drug offences.
Sitting with Mr Justice Nicol and Judge Julian Goose QC, she concluded: “The Solicitor-General’s reference must succeed. This overall sentence was unduly lenient.”
The police shooting on the M62 above Huddersfield has caused unrest in the town and Yaqub’s father has threatened to sue the police.
Mohammed Yassar Yaqub, 28, died after being shot by officers at junction 24 on the M62, just north of Huddersfield, on Monday at around 6pm.
The planned operation followed information about criminal possession of a firearm and a gun was found in his car which is now being examined by police.
Shortly after his killing, protesters blocked traffic near Bradford city centre and held banners reading “Police don’t murder”.
His family, as well as around 100 other mourners, later attended the scene on the M62 to lay flowers and release balloons in his memory.
The parents of the self-styled "Stud Badboy" have insisted their son was “no risk” to the public and that he was a “kind-hearted young man”.
They compared his death to that of Mark Duggan, whose shooting by officers in London in 2011 triggered riots across the country.