Convicted ‘Gangster’ repeatedly punched Prison Officer

A gangster has had his prison sentence extended after he punched a prison officer to create a “distraction” as he tried to smuggle a wrap of powder from HMP Humber’s visiting area.

Adil Qayyum, aged 26, carried out the assault as he was taken from the visiting area after officers spotted him and his visitor participating in “suspicious activity” on CCTV in September 2019.

As he was being taken to be searched, Qayyum kept “fiddling with the waistband of his trousers” and when told to stop, he shouted at the prison officer, telling him:

“What the hell are you doing, I will knock you out.”

Richard Thompson, prosecuting, told Hull Crown Court that the prison officer tried to grab Qayyum’s hand to stop him fiddling with his trousers.

Mr Thompson explained: “They took him into a holding area and told him he would be searched. He complied with the removal of his shoes and top but became resistant when they tried to remove his trousers.

“The prison officer took hold of his arm and removed a piece of paper from his hand that contained some bank account details.”

Qayyum then told the officer: “Remember my face. I’m in prison for burning cars.”

He also said he was in prison for “shooting people” and that he had “other people on the outside to do his dirty work for him”.

Qayyum punched the prison officer four times to the side of the head, before swallowing a “wrap” that had been hidden in his trousers.

The gangster is currently serving a six-year sentence for arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

He was sentenced in 2018 alongside self-styled gangster Wakkas Butt.

Butt was convicted of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life when a black Volkswagen Passat pulled up and someone inside fired a sawn-off shotgun at a 22-year-old man who was sitting inside a parked BMW.

Following an investigation, he was convicted.

Police also discovered that Qayyum, Butt, Adeel Malik and Shezan Shabir had set fire to an Audi RS3 and Volkswagen Golf R in Sheffield in October 2017.

The Audi belonged to the father of the man who was targeted in the shooting.

A day after the fire, the four men were arrested.

Qayyum also has another 12 convictions including threatening behaviour, dangerous driving and being involved in the supply of Class A drugs.

In mitigation, Nick Worsley said that Qayyum’s earliest release date will be in November 2021.

He said: “He is 26. He has been transferred to HMP Liverpool, not as a result of these incidents, but due to the reorganisation of the prison.

“The complainant says he thought what he [Qayyum] was saying was empty threats and took no particular notice of them.

“He describes as having small cuts which were sore, but he didn’t need any further medical treatment for his injuries.”

Qayyum’s prison sentence was extended by three months for assaulting an emergency worker.

Judge Mark Bury said: “You’re still a young man serving a long sentence and your release date is next year.

“Although you struck [the prison officer] four times in total the injuries he received were not the most serious.

“He concedes that the object of the exercise was not to cause injuries but it was to disguise the fact that you had a wrap of powder or whatever it was that you wanted to keep and what you was doing was distracting people from whatever that was.”