Barrister jailed over revenge plot with client

A barrister from West Yorkshire who plotted a revenge attack with her "career criminal" client has been jailed for more than three years.

Samreen Akhtar had represented Tabish Ali, who had been shot and injured in Blacker Road in Huddersfield on 14 September 2021.

The following day, the 38-year-old barrister, of Sufton Street, Huddersfield, was recorded on a telephone call to Ali putting forward a plan to find the person responsible for the shooting so they could be caused serious injuries, according to West Yorkshire Police.

Akhtar was convicted of encouraging or assisting the commission of an indictable offence, namely inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent.

At Manchester Crown Court on Monday, she was given a prison term of three years and three months.

Police said Ali was part of a drugs gang and was later charged with the murder of Jamal Nedd.

Nedd had been shot and killed outside his Huddersfield home as he was driving his mother to work on 19 December 2020.

Ali, of Clare Road, Cleckheaton, was charged with his murder in 2021 and later convicted and given a life sentence along with two other men in July 2022.

Their trial heard that the murder had come as part of an escalating "turf war" between drug dealing gangs and involving multiple violent firearms incidents.

The attempted murder shooting of Ali in 2021 was believed to have been linked to this ongoing feud, according to the force.

Akhtar denied the charge she faced but was convicted by a majority jury verdict following a five-day trial in June.

Det Insp Paul Hutchinson said: "As a professional working in the criminal justice system, Samreen Akhtar would have been acutely aware of her legal and moral responsibilities.

"But she chose to act outside of those to plot revenge with a dangerous criminal involved in a violent gang feud which included the brutal execution of a rival for which he was later convicted."

He continued: "In doing so, she became a criminal herself and showed a complete disregard for the standards that are expected of those in the legal profession."

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