Fights with weapons 'all too common' says judge sentencing four men over armed street brawl
A senior judge said four men embroiled in a street fight armed with bricks, bottles, blades and baseball bats should have phoned the police instead of brawling in the street.
Wolverhampton Combined Court resident judge Michael Chambers KC says cases involving violent disorder had become "all too common on the streets of the Black Country" with groups choosing to settle differences in public.
His comments follow the sentencing of four defendants who were part of two groups caught on film fighting, in Caldmore Green, in Caldmore, in Walsall, on January 9, 2020. Shops were forced to close amid escalating violence between two rival groups following a spate of shootings.
Cars and takeaway restaurant K2 Pizza & Peri Peri were damaged during the brawl which happened at 5.45pm in the middle of a busy shopping area with buses passing as the violence flared.
Wassim Rabbi, 40, Mohammed Waqass Jamil, 23, and Jamil Rabbi, 47, Mohammed Nadeem Rabbi, 36, all pleaded guilty to one count of violent disorder ahead of a jury trial and were sentenced at the Crown Court on Wednesday.
The case relates to reports of shootings in Caldmore Road in which no-one was hurt the previous month.
Sentencing them Judge Chambers said: "This I'm afraid is another incident where rival groups have sought to play out their differences on the streets of the West Midlands. The confrontations which involve the use and threatening with weapons at a time when members of the public are going about their business.
"This is unacceptable and can lead to more serious violence. The police should be summoned if people have concerns. The law should not be taken into your hands.
"It is completely unacceptable that weapons are being used with impunity. The background to the trouble is irrelevant. It was clearly provoked by three others who have been convicted for public disorder."
He said he accepted Mohammed Nadeem Rabbi's mitigation that he went to the scene after the disturbance started and had waved a machete at someone.
The court also heard that after a separate trial another man Kasim Jahlil was jailed for four years for attempted grievous bodily harm and violent for driving a white Audi at a group of men in a car park during the disorder. The car had been damaged moments earlier.
Two other men were jailed for 18 months for violent disorder while others received community terms.
Judge Chambers said the latest case also crossed the custody threshold. But he said he was "only just persuaded" to suspend the prison terms because these defendants had jobs and had committed no further crimes since then.
For violent disorder Wassim Rabbi, of Delves Road, in Walsall; Mohammed Waqass Jamil and former K2 Pizza & Peri Peri owner Jamil Rabbi, both of Holbrook Lane, Coventry, were all jailed for 15 months suspended for two years. Mohammed Nadeem Rabbi, of Bath Road, Caldmore,Walsall, was jailed for 10 months suspended for two years. All must attend 20 probation activity days and carry out 120 hours unpaid work.
There was no order for costs.
