Abbeydale Road police raid: Sheffield teen tried to stash 'dangerous' adapated firearm on window ledge

A Sheffield teenager who attempted to stash a modified gun and ammunition on a windowsill during a police raid of an Abbeydale Road property has been put behind bars.

“Firearms are used by criminals to kill, maim, terrify and intimidate. All matter of serious offending is made more serious when a firearm is used,” Judge Graham Reeds KC told 19-year-old defendant Mohammed Ibrar, as he sent him to begin a five-year prison sentence for possession of an adapted firearm and ammunition.

Officers were sent to raid two properties on Abbeydale Road on August 9, 2023, after receiving ‘information about a potential sighting of firearms,’ prosecuting barrister, Charlotte Noddings told Sheffield Crown Court.

Ms Noddings said one of the officers present noticed ‘movement’ in one of the upstairs windows at the property, and subsequently observed Ibrar, ‘reach through the window, and saw him place a black man bag on the ledge outside’. 

The ‘man bag’ was subsequently retrieved, and inside, officers found a modified black handgun, the court heard during a hearing held on September 14, 2023. 

Following the discovery, Ibrar, of Joshua Road, Nether Edge, was arrested and answered ‘no comment’ to all questions, Ms Noddings said. 

Examination of the gun revealed it to be a converted 9mm P.A.K Retay 84FS pistol, along with what Judge Reeds termed as ‘homemade’ ammunition that was ‘compatible’ to be used with the firearm. 

Judge Reeds told Ibrar: “It was a working firearm that was ready to be fired immediately.”

Ms Noddings said it was the Crown’s case that ‘the firearm had been modified to make it more dangerous…turning it from a blank firing weapon to a real weapon’.  

A ‘large quantity of cannabis,’ along with two stab vests were also recovered from the Abbeydale Road property where Ibrar was arrested, the court heard. 

Judge Reeds said he ‘suspected’ that Ibrar was ‘involved with the running’ of the criminal enterprise in operation at the Abbeydale Road property; however he said there was ‘no evidence’ to support this, and he would therefore only sentence him for the firearm and ammunition charges he had admitted to.

Ibrar stated, through his basis of plea, which was accepted by the prosecution, that he was given the firearm a couple of days before his arrest and was holding it for an individual whose house had recently been shot at. 

In response to this, Judge Reeds told the defendant: “If you were holding it for another criminal, it’s clear it would have been used for a criminal purpose. You knew that, or could not have cared less.” 

Ibrar has five previous offences for three court appearances, the first of which was committed when he was just 16, for offences including possession with intent to supply cannabis and possession of a bladed article. 

Using his basis of plea, Ibrar pleaded guilty to charges of possessing a prohibited weapon, namely a firearm of length less than 30cm / 60cm, and possessing ammunition for a firearm without a certificate at an earlier hearing. 

Possession of a firearm carries a minimum mandatory prison sentence of five years, unless there are ‘exceptional circumstances’. 

Dermot Hughes, defending, claimed Ibrar’s circumstances were ‘exceptional’ because he had been ‘exploited or intimidated’ into holding the firearm for another. 

However, Judge Reeds suggested that ‘people with lower profiles’ storing firearms for known criminals happens too often for the circumstances of an individual in that predicament to be regarded as ‘exceptional’.

He said Ibrar would therefore have to receive the minimum term, and jailed him for five years. 

Judge Reeds also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the firearm and ammunition.