Rotherham robber pointed fake shotgun and hijacked driver with a Taser

Hadise Hussain cocked the weapon before telling his male victim: "Give us your money and your phone."

A mobile phone and £9 in cash were handed over at an address on Redstone Crescent, Rotherham, on June 29, 2019, but Hussain said the phone was too old and handed it back.

His partner NIcola Howell picked up a helmet and keys, and said: "Come on - we've got what we came for."

A £550 i-phone, a £170 television, and a £1,200 Piaggio scooter were also taken, prosecutor Clare Walsh told Sheffield Crown Court, on Thursday.

In a statement, their victim said: "This has robbed me of my confidence. I have had to move away. I am still on edge when the door knocks.

"I can still hear the click of the gun. It makes me shiver."

The court also heard how Hussain threatened a takeaway driver with a Taser gun, in an alley off Main Street, Goldthorpe, on May 20, 2018.

"He flicked a switch and the driver saw the prongs crackle," said Ms Walsh.

The driver ran and dropped his phone, which Hussain picked up, while Howell took the food he'd delivered without paying for it.

In a statement, the driver said: "I didn't sleep for several days afterwards. This has made me anxious of meeting strangers."

The pair were captured three days after the "shotgun" robbery, just before 9am, when police on Sandymount Road saw a silver Land Rover with a handwritten number plate.

"As officers checked the vehicle Mr Hussain started the vehicle, drove forward and hit the constable's right thigh," said Ms Walsh.

He continued to rev the engine and drive forward until one officer smashed the windscreen with his baton, and another smashed the driver's window and restrained him.

The court heard Hussain has ten convictions for 15 offences between 2015 and May 2019, mainly of harassment and breaches of non-molestation orders.

Howell received a conditional discharge for possession of class B drugs, shoplifting and resisting police, in June 2018.

Lorena Veale, for Hussain, said: "He expresses remorse. He is under no illusion that these actions were entirely reprehensible. His mental functioning is lower than average."

She said the dad-of-four's relationship broke down in 2015, and he began drinking up to bottles of Jack Daniels per day and using drugs including "spice."

The court heard the pair were "controlled" by another man who was the "driving force behind the offences."

Richard Adams, for Howell, said she was in a "toxic" two-and-a-half-year relationship with Hussain.

He said she endured "harrowing" domestic abuse, "coercive and controlling behaviour" and suffered from what a probation officer described as "Stockholm Syndrome."

Hussain, 37, of North Crescent, and Howell, 32, of College Road, both of Rotherham, pleaded guilty before a trial, on November 28.

Judge Robert Moore QC described them as "the puppets of a serious offender who has yet to be charged," and noted that Howell had been coerced.

He gave Hussain a total of 13 years and Howell received five years and six months.