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.
Judge Mansell brought the case back to court on Friday under a rule that allows sentences to be altered if new information comes to light. He revoked Bashir’s suspended sentence and imposed one of immediate custody
The judge said Bashir had “not a shred of evidence” to support his Leicestershire contract claims, effectively dismissing an argument from his defence that a “typographical error” in an agent’s letter had led to confusion over his cricket status.
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 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.
-‘Plainly vulnerable’ -
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.
However, the judge said Friday he regarded Karim as “plainly vulnerable”
''I am concerned that the misreporting and misunderstanding of my remarks may have given Miss Karim the impression that I did not believe her account as to the effect these offences have had on her, that I did not consider her to be vulnerable,” he added.
Meanwhile Leicestershire chief executive Wasim Khan expressed his satisfaction with the “fitting punishment” now imposed on Bashir.
“We were horrified at being used as a means for someone who had been convicted of appalling violence to his wife to escape imprisonment,” Khan said.
“His new sentence of 18 months in prison is a much more fitting punishment for what he did and good news for the fight against domestic violence.”
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