Alleged double murderer was arrested applying for fake passport after two men shot in Wolverhampton, jury told

Mohammed Maneer Khan, 39, is on trial accused of the murders of Duaine Mills and Syed Zain Ali, who died of head injuries after being shot in Harrow Street in Whitmore Reans in the early hours of September 19 last year.

Mr Mills, 28, died at the scene and Mr Ali, 32, died in hospital five days later.

Khan, of St Catharines Close in Walsall, denies two counts of murder, the attempted murder of a third man who was with Mr Mills and Mr Ali when they were shot but was not injured himself, and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Khan has pleaded guilty to a fraud offence, having tried to obtain a false passport after the shooting.

Today (October 27) the jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court was shown CCTV footage showing Khan’s arrest inside a passport office in Birmingham city centre on the morning of November 20 last year, two months after the shooting.

Michael Burrows KC for the prosecution asked West Midlands Police’s Detective Constable Steven Thorpe on the witness stand to explain the footage played in court.

The jury saw footage of a man the prosecution says is Khan being dropped off in Bull Street by a white BMW at 9.43am.

The man in the footage was seen approaching the appointment-only passport office in Bull Street and being let in by a member of staff. He was seen being handed a clipboard and appearing to sign a document, before being searched by a member of staff and led upstairs to a waiting room in which he sat down in view of another camera.

Video of the next five minutes showed the man appearing to have two conversations on a mobile phone, unaware police were preparing to apprehend him.

At 9.51am, less than 10 minutes after he entered the building, three plain-clothes police officers entered the room and charged him as he sat, handcuffing him and taking him away.

Ten minutes later the same BMW that dropped him off was seen returning to Bull Street and pulling into a car park behind the passport office. Police vehicles then entered the car park, blocking the BMW in before several officers rushed to get the driver out of the car and arrest him.

That driver is alleged to be Yaseen Patel, who along with a third defendant is on trial accused of assisting Khan with his bogus passport application following the shooting.

Yaseen Patel, aged 35 and of Bromford Way, Birmingham, and Samir Patel, 43 and of St Catharines Close, Walsall, deny perverting the course of justice.

Mr Mills and Mr Ali were shot in the head as they sat in the front seats of an Audi A4 in Harrow Street soon after 3am on September 19 last year, seconds after they used weapons to damage the windows and paintwork of an Audi RS6 car parked nearby. Khan was not the vehicle’s owner but was allegedly driving it that night.

The trial continues.