Conservative former Councillors jailed over postal vote scam

From The Independent who have followed this story;

Five men, including two former Conservative councillors, were jailed today for their parts in a failed postal votes scam aimed at getting a Conservative Party candidate, Haroon Rashid elected in the 2005 general election.

A judge heard at Leeds Crown Court that a newspaper investigation and police inquiry unearthed a plot to try to get Tory candidate Haroon Rashid elected in the marginal Bradford West seat using hundreds of fraudulent postal vote applications.

The Court was told detectives examined about 900 suspicious forms - many from people who did not exist or had no idea an application had been made on their behalf.

The plot was foiled before the conspirators had the chance to convert the applications into votes and, in the end, Haroon Rashid was defeated by the sitting Labour MP Marsha Singh who won with a majority of more than 3,000.

Prosecutors said that if the press had not intervened back in May 2005, "the plan may well have been successful".

Today former Bradford city councillor Jamshed Khan, 65, of Russell Street, Bradford; another former councillor Reis Khan, 40, of Whetley Hill, Bradford; Mohammed Sultan, 52, of Toller Lane, Bradford and Mohammed Rafiq, 70, of Cecil Avenue, Bradford, were each jailed for 21 months for their part in the conspiracy.

All four denied a charge of conspiring to defraud the electoral registration officer of Bradford City Council but were found guilty at a trial earlier this year.

Another defendant, Alyas Khan, 52, of Hilton Road, Bradford, admitted the offence and was jailed for 11 months.

Finally the Courts are starting to act on this corrupt practice - yes I would say the same of any Lib Dem found doing it too - we have to stamp down on this nonsense, irrespective of which political party conducts the postal vote fraud.

Gay couple in homophobic attack by 15-strong mob in Bradford

Unfortunately while thousands of people in the LGBT community were enjoying Pride in London this weekend, another nasty homophobic attack was taking place.

Two gay men, aged 21 and 37, were walking along Heap lane towards Bradford city centre at around 7.30pm when the mob of 15 men and women began verbally abusing them.

DI Ian Bryar of Bradford South police said the couple were "very shocked and upset " and confirmed the incident was being treated as homophobic.

He said: "This was an unprovoked attack on two men walking towards the City centre. Because of the language used by the group towards the victims I believe that this attack was based on the men's sexuality and is therefore being treated as a homophobic hate crime.

Police say the gang grabbed items from a nearby skip to fashion makeshift weapons and attacked them following the verbal abuse.

Both men were treated for head injuries that required hospital treatment but were described as not serious.

You can only describe these 15 people as cowards, the fact they needed to create a gang of 15 to attack 2 people is nothing short of cowardly.  I hope that if the attackers families or friends know or suspect it may be them they will go to the police.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Bradford South police on 0845 6060606 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

I wish the two guys in Bradford all the very best and a speedy recovery.