A driver who claimed his view was obscured by a 'soft toy' and an air freshener hanging from his rear view mirror before he killed a woman in a horror crash said his 'whole world collapsed' when he realised what he had done.
28.01.2024 - 23:07 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
They made for an unlikely alliance. One was the playboy son of a clothing tycoon who counted members of the Pakistani government among his close relatives.
Another was a gold-toothed gangster from Bradford, while the third was a cage-fighting hardman who lived in a £1m house. But together they formed one of the biggest gun-running operations ever uncovered in Britain.
Kaleem Akhtar, Mudassar Ali and Paul Wilson teamed up to become the gun-runners of choice for the North's gangs and major criminals. Their illicit network flooded the north with dozens, if not hundreds, of firearms smuggled into the country from Lithuania.
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Such was the spread of their network it led to a spike in reports of gun crime. But their empire would come crashing down after specialist cops first tracked, then smashed the arms racket.
To the outside world Kaleem Akhtar was the epitome of south Manchester middle-class respectability. Born in Pakistan, he came to Britain at the age of three and his family set up a successful chain of clothing stores in Manchester and Liverpool.
Close relatives included a Pakistani MP and former minister in the Pakistani government. After dropping out of his A Level studies at Trafford College he joined the family business and seemed set to follow in his father's footsteps.
An apparently dutiful husband, his arranged marriage was attended by 4,000 guests. He and his wife lived in a £350,000 semi on the borders of Chorlton and Whalley Range given as a wedding gift. But it was all a facade.
The self-styled 'Big K' wanted for
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