RICHARD ENGLISH REPRESENTS BLACKBURN “ICE CREAM WARS” DEFENDANT

Zaheer Ramzan, who appeared at Preston Crown Court on 28 January 2013, escaped an immediate custodial sentence “by the skin of his teeth”. Mr Ramzan was before the court for offences of assault, possession of a weapon and criminal damage following an altercation with a fellow ice cream sales man in Blackburn in June 2012.  The events which gave rise to the court proceedings were captured on a mobile ‘phone; the footage which was posted on YouTube has been viewed over a million times.  His Honour Judge Leeming QC had said he had thought an immediate custodial sentence was a virtual certainty, but after the “painstaking and thorough way” in which the mitigation had been set out by Mr English, he concluded the sentence could be suspended. Richard English was instructed by Amal Solicitors, Huddersfield.