Sheffield man's terror as armed police storm family wedding over 'hoax' call

On the evening of Friday, July 9, Shoaib Nawaz, 32, says he and his brother were at home in Page Hall celebrating the latter’s wedding with their family when armed police burst in.

They were both arrested, and informed that somebody had called the police and said that they were in possession of a gun while at a petrol station nearby on Owler Lane, earlier that evening.

The brothers spent the night in a cell. However, they were later released when police established that they did not have a gun, and that the information given during the call was not true. Mr Nawaz and his brother are now free and not facing firearms charges.

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“I had just finished work and on my way home I filled up the car which I had hired for the wedding at the petrol station,” Mr Nawaz, a barber, said.

"I got home at quarter past seven, and by twenty past the police had swarmed the house and I was arrested.

"We were in the house with our families and children and they all came in and pointed guns towards me. I was told somebody called the police and said I was waving a gun around at the petrol station.

"But the CCTV and witnesses showed that was a lie. However, I was still taken away and had to spend the night in a cell before I was released.”

Mr Nawaz said that the wedding resumed once he was released. However, they went to Nottingham to do it as they were too scared to keep it going in Sheffield.

He added that because the car was taken away and food prepared for the events on July 9 was wasted, the family lost thousands of pounds.

And now he is calling for the police to investigate who made the call claiming he was armed.

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“Police must know who it is, but they won’t tell me,” he said.

An SYP spokesperson said: “Our enquiries into this incident are ongoing and all parties are being spoken to, including the people who made the call to us.”

At the time, police said: “[Officers] were called at around 7:21 pm on Friday 9 July to reports that two men had been witnessed as being in possession of a firearm inside a car at a petrol station in Owler Lane.

“Officers attended the scene, and two men, aged 31 and 32, were arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm.”