Wife-beating husband jailed in UK after false cricket contract claim

An abusive husband initially spared prison after telling a court he could lose the offer of a contract with an English county cricket club was jailed for 18 months on Friday.

Mustafa Bashir, 33, was given a suspended sentence at Manchester Crown Court on March 22 for assaulting wife Fakhara Karim.

Judge Richard Mansell was told then that if Bashir was spared custody he would be employed as a professional player by Leicestershire County Cricket Club.

But shortly after Mansell passed his original sentence, Leicestershire said they had never had any contact with Bashir, who was said to have hit his wife with a cricket bat and forced her to drink bleach.

English criminal sentences can be altered under the so-called “slip rule”, which gives courts the power to make changes if new information becomes available.

It was by triggering the “slip rule” that Judge Mansell brought the case back to court on Friday, where he revoked Bashir’s suspended sentence and imposed one of immediate custody.

Bashir insisted he had never told his lawyers or probation officers he had a job offer to play cricket professionally and suggested there had been a “series of misunderstandings”.

Judge Mansell said Bashir had “not a shred of evidence” to support his Leicestershire contract claims.

Sending Bashir down, he told him: “You were clearly making a claim to the court you had a career in professional cricket ahead of you, which was false.

“You made that quite clearly in the hope you would avoid a prison sentence.

“There’s not a shred of evidence you were ever chosen to play for Leicestershire County Cricket Club, let alone you had received any offer of a full-time contract.”

Bashir had last month given the court a letter from a sports agent claiming he “had a very bright future ahead” with Leicestershire.

Bob Sastry, defending Bashir in court on Friday, suggested this was a “typographical error” and should have read “would have had a very bright future if he had been selected” by Leicestershire.

Bashir played as a semi-professional in the Bolton Cricket League and on two occasions had indeed had net session practice with Leicestershire — who denied any knowledge of him.

Judge Mansell told Bashir he was not now resentencing him for “lying to the court”, but added: “You may well face investigation into whether you have committed quite separate offences of perverting the course of justice.”

Bashir was also given a restraining order not to approach his wife.

After the original case concluded Judge Mansell was widely criticised for reportedly saying that wife Karim’s status as “an intelligent” and university-educated woman made her less vulnerable than other abuse victims.

© Agence France-Presse

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