"he was told to get out of his car and get into the Mercedes"
Two men have been jailed for a total of 14 years for carrying out a heinous attack on a father-of-six in which they assaulted him after kidnapping him.
Bradford Crown Court heard they exacted revenge over an affair they believed the victim aided.
Ghufran Khalid, aged 40, instigated the “planned ambush” of Ataf Ali and had recruited co-accused Paul Serrant, aged 29, to use violence.
In November 2018, the pair pulled up in a Mercedes near to Mr Ali’s vehicle in Ellercroft Road, Bradford.
Mr Ali had been sitting in his own car when he was ordered into the Mercedes. After getting into the car, Khalid began questioning him about a lift he gave to his wife and a friend.
Mr Ali was then driven off and assaulted because the duo believed he was assisting an affair.
The ordeal lasted 30 minutes, with Khalid driving and Serrant in the back seat. Mr Ali was punched, choked with a seat belt and hit with the blunt end of a machete before he was able to escape.
Gerald Hendron, prosecuting, explained that the men believed that Mr Ali had given a lift to a man named Imran Sajwal, who was thought to be having an affair with Khalid’s wife.
He said: “Mr Ali says he was told to get out of his car and get into the Mercedes. He says he was scared to do so out of fear of violence. The prosecution say he was right to be scared.”
CCTV footage captured in Great Horton showed the same car and a man getting out of the passenger side door.
It showed the man, believed to be Serrant, with what appeared to be a machete.
Mr Ali recalled what he told the men: “I just gave them a lift. What have I done wrong?”
Both men were found guilty of kidnapping and assaulting the victim. Serrant was also convicted of threatening with an offensive weapon.
However, the pair were not found guilty of blackmailing the victim.
In mitigation, Susannah Proctor said that the incident had been born out of Khalid’s “fury and jealousy over his wife’s affair” but that the violence had escalated and it was “misplaced retribution”.
The court heard that Serrant had nothing to do with the original argument and had used the blunt edge of the machete rather than the blade, inflicting bruises instead of cuts and that the attack involved “psychological fear rather than a desire to cause lasting damage”.
Recorder Patrick Palmer said:
“This was a planned ambush and revenge attack on Mr Ali.”
“I take the view, Mr Khalid, that you planned this attack and you recruited Mr Serrant to carry out the violence as part of this attack.
“You had gone to the scene with a machete. Whilst it was not used to cut it was used by you Paul Serrant to bruise and no doubt terrify Mr Ali.
The Telegraph and Argus reported that both men each received seven years in prison.
Serrant was also jailed for a further 10 months for supplying cannabis dating back to May 2018 and eight months for an affray outside a mini-mart in May 2019.
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