Samreen Akhtar, a barrister once celebrated as a social mobility advocate, has been jailed for three years and three months for encouraging her gangster client to carry out a revenge attack. The 38-year-old from Huddersfield was found guilty by jurors at Manchester Crown Court of encouraging or assisting grievous bodily harm with intent.
Akhtar was recorded encouraging career criminal Tabish Ali to track down a gunman who had shot him during a bloody feud between rival gangs in West Yorkshire. Prosecutors said she was heard suggesting they "locate and cause serious harm" to the would-be assassin who had tried to kill him in 2021.
Fall from grace for former poster girl barrister
Akhtar's involvement in the violent turf war marked a huge fall from grace for a lawyer who was the youngest barrister on the Midlands Circuit at the time she completed her pupillage. Of Pashtun heritage, she previously told the Asian Standard newspaper how she broke from tradition by studying beyond 16.
The Bar Council had selected Akhtar as one of 10 social mobility advocates in 2020 as part of its #IAmTheBar campaign, which celebrated the achievements of young barristers who had attended state schools and grown up in deprived areas. The council said it hoped barristers like her would inspire others from underprivileged backgrounds to think about a law career.
Arrest and murder conviction link
Akhtar was arrested in March 2022 by West Yorkshire Police's Economic Crime Unit as part of a probe into an escalating turf war between drug dealing gangs, which had involved multiple violent and firearms incidents since 2018. Police said the attempted murder shooting of Ali in 2021 was believed to have been linked to this ongoing feud.
Ali, of Cleckheaton, West Yorks., was later charged with the murder of Jamal Nedd, who had been shot and fatally wounded outside his home in December 2020 as he drove his mother to work. He was convicted of his murder and given a life sentence along with two other men in July 2022.
Police condemn disregard for professional standards
Detective Inspector 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. 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, and also for the significant negative impact that gang-related violence and criminality have on our communities."
