15 criminals jailed in Leeds in May, from a cruel couple to a street thug

It was another busy month at Leeds courts in May with a number of criminals jailed.

Every month, hundreds of defendants pass through the doors of Leeds Crown Court and Leeds Magistrates’ Court, and this was no different.

This month we saw sentences handed down for an organized crime gang who ran a ‘shop’ in the city and a sick daughter and her partner who left their mother sitting in faeces and urine and wearing the same clothes for a year.

Read more: Woman strangled husband and threw his clothes out of house ‘after affair’

Below is a list of people jailed in Leeds in May.

Natasha Pammant and Liam Leach

The sick couple Pammant and Leach left a woman sitting in her own feces and urine and wearing the same clothes for an entire year.

The victim was Pammant’s mother, who lived with them. Her existence was only discovered when a concerned neighbor called social services for help after hearing screams. It was said that when a social worker looked through a window at the house, he saw a “skeletal leg” and a “swollen ankle and foot”. Upon entering, the worker said the smell “hit her like a sledgehammer.”

The woman was in a chair for three months and paramedics had to shower her to get her out of the chair before moving her to an ambulance. He had been wearing the same sweater for a year. The woman was said to have asked paramedics if they had any food as soon as they arrived. The court heard the woman had large pressure ulcers on her body – including one that was “down to the bone” which could have proved fatal.

Both Pammant and Leach were sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Read the full story here.

Alitor Deda, Andi Teta, Ali Qerfozi, Erijon Gjoka, Edison Markeci and Agostin Marku

The gang were all jailed after it was discovered they had hidden a cannabis farm in an abandoned care home in Leeds. The former Moorfield House in Fieldhouse walk, Moortown, was discovered to be the home of the vast cannabis farm on December 4 last year. Officers discovered 811 factories capable of producing 44kg of the Class B drug – which would produce an estimated street value of up to £446,000.

Equipment worth up to £45,000, including high-powered lamps, fans and timers, was found alongside baseball bats and machetes.

Deda, Teta and Qerfozi were imprisoned for two years, Gjoka received an 18-month sentence, Markeci and Marcu were imprisoned for 16 months.

Read the full story here.

Sam Oliver, Mark Smith, Jason Tester, Andrew Oldroyd and Adrian Stewart

Organized crime gang members have been jailed in Leeds after they were found to be running a shop. A police investigation called Operation Digford, led by officers from Leeds District Intelligence Unit, uncovered three of the shops in Leeds and Dewsbury – where vehicles were being dismantled and parts prepared to be sold. The group worked by stealing keyless vehicles by scanning the signal from the owners’ keys and using an on-board diagnostic tool to start the vehicles.

In an incident in August 2022 on Lime Pit Lane, Wakefield, a man was left with life-changing injuries after confronting Mark Smith, who ran over him. The man became trapped under the front wheel of the van and traveled with it for approximately 800 meters before freeing himself. Wakefield District CID and the District Crime Team were able to link the robbery to a sawmill in Armley, which was already under investigation.

Smith was jailed for 15 years, Oldroyd and Rothwell for seven and a half years, Oliver for six years and three months, Stewart for two years and four months and Tester for 18 months.

Peter Hoyle, 38, of Aberford Road, Woodlesford, was jailed for 11 months for conspiracy to steal motor vehicles.

Read the full story here.

Rainbow Tay-La

Leeds robber Tay-La was jailed in May after he targeted a woman in the city center and attacked her as they tried to steal her phone.

Tay-La asked the woman if she had any changes, and when she said no, they attacked her. She became “aggressive” and “started screaming” and shouted: “You have my phone” before trying to grab her bag. Tay-La then grabbed the woman by the neck and “threw her against the wall.”

A man intervened and Tay-La saw the woman’s phone in her pocket and ran off with it. A member of the public watched as the woman picked up her things. In their interview with police, Tay-La admitted to waiting on the street for “the right person” and “saw the victim and ran for help.” Tay-La was jailed for four years and subject to an extended license period of three years.

Read the full story here.

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