A man who took part in a gang attack on a house and car with baseball bats, a sledge hammer and bricks has been spared an immediate jail sentence after pressing to get his case dealt with after a wait of more than two and a half years.

Naheem Mumtaz, who was on an electronically monitored curfew since February 2019 and had stayed out of trouble since, contacted his solicitor to push for his sentencing hearing to go ahead, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Mumtaz, 33, of Lister Street, Keighley, pleaded guilty to violent disorder at a house in the town’s Heather Bank Avenue in Oakworth on February 4, 2019.

The court heard that he and four others turned up at the address in two cars to carry out an attack prompted by a belief that the householder had assaulted him and damaged his property.

The gang set about a vehicle and house with the weapons, smashing the car windows and breaking both the ground floor and upstairs windows at the address.

Mumtaz was arrested in his car the following day, prosecutor Lydia Carroll said.

He had previous convictions for affray and violent disorder but had been out of trouble since 2013 and had not committed any offences in the more than two and a half years since, his barrister Timothy Jacobs said.

He pleaded guilty to the violent disorder on the day he was to stand trial in July, 2019.

Mumtaz was due to be sentenced in November that year but for some reason he wasn’t, Judge Neil Davey QC was told.

He waited to hear from the court during the whole of last year and most of 2021.

It was Mumtaz himself who eventually contacted his solicitor to press for his case to be dealt with, Mr Jacobs said.

A probation report was ordered and it was listed for sentence today.

Judge Davey said aggravating features of the case were Mumtaz’s previous convictions for offences of violence and the fact that he took part in a gang attack with weapons.

But he had already served the equivalent of a lengthy prison sentence while having his liberty restricted for more than two and a half years on an electronic curfew that was part of his bail conditions.

Judge Davey sentenced Mumtaz to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with a £1,000 compensation order payable to the woman householder at £100 a month.