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Guns and cash swoop teacher in wrong place
A TEACHING assistant claims he was "in the wrong place at the wrong time" when he was caught by police in a Sheffield garage with two sawn-off shotguns and more than half a million pounds in cash, a court heard.
Imran Mohammed, aged 23, who works with youngsters with learning difficulties at Yewlands School in Parson Cross, said he had been trying to keep pal Shamraze Bashir out of trouble since his release from prison last year.
Mohammed, who has also worked at Mansel Primary School and Chaucer Secondary School, said he was trying to be a "role model" for him - encouraging him to work out at the gym and apply for a taxi licence to provide for his children following a five-year term for supplying drugs.
He told Sheffield Crown Court he had no idea Bashir, 28, had returned to a life of crime, and was shocked to find the two guns on entering his garage in Norwood Road, Norwood.
Mohammed, of Goddard Hall Road, Fir Vale, added he had no knowledge of 531,805 in cash stuffed in Tesco carrier bags in a cupboard, and did not know what a hydraulic press also found in the garage was for. It contained traces of heroin.
Bashir has admitted money laundering, being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, possessing firearms without a licence, and shortening two shotguns. Mohammed denies the same charges.
In a statement to police after his arrest in November last year, he said: "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have got a good job."
He said he had phoned Bashir after working out at Flex Fitness in Southey Green to ask if he wanted to go to the cinema. Bashir asked him to meet him near his house and the pair went together in his car to his garage - leaving Mohammed's vehicle parked nearby.
Mohammed claims the guns were already sawn off when he arrived and, when he asked what they were for, Bashir told him not to ask questions.
But a police officer acting on a tip-off had overheard the sound of sawing coming from inside the garage, and 20 minutes later armed police swooped on the property to find the two men and the shotguns.
Mohammed, who works with children with dyslexia, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, told the jury: "From what I was aware he hadn't gone back to his life of crime.
"He was making good progress, he was a totally different man. I was meant to be a good influence, a role model for him. My association with him was nothing criminal."
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Weather for Sheffield
Friday 10 February 2012
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