ROBUST ‘street justice’ was meted out to a crack cocaine addict caught red-handed robbing a lone mother at a cash point, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Members of the public rushed to help when they heard her screaming after she was pushed to the ground at the ATM machine outside the Post Office in Gaythorne Road, West Bowling, Bradford, at 8pm on June 6.

Najahat Karim, who had been waiting for a victim by the machine, was apprehended and detained in a citizens’ arrest until the police arrived.

The £200 he had robbed was seized back and the woman was escorted home, prosecutor Nicola Hoskins said.

Today, Karim, 51, of Donisthorpe Street, West Bowling, was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to the robbery.

Judge Andrew Hatton rejected his assertion that he hadn’t deliberately waited to target a lone woman.

“If it was a 25-year-old body builder on his way home from the gym he wouldn’t have been attacked,” he said.

Miss Hoskins told the court that Karim approached the woman and stood next to her, asking if the cash machine was working.

He was keeping watch until she withdrew the money. Then he pushed her aside and snatched the banknotes from the machine.

When she grabbed at his coat, he pushed her again and she went to the ground.

The victim, a Bradford mother, was now afraid to go alone to a cash point.

Karim made no comment to all police questions.

His barrister, Imran Khan, produced references for Karim and a letter he had written to the judge himself.

He had smoked crack cocaine half an hour before the robbery and was desperate for some more. He had no money to buy the highly addictive drug but had ‘an uncontrollable urge’ for it so loitered by the cash point looking for a victim.

“He was subject to street justice and was assaulted, which he says was deserved,” Mr Khan stated.

Karim described himself as being ‘a hopeless, degenerate crack cocaine addict’ at the time.

Since being remanded in HMP Leeds, he was free from drugs and had resolved to turn his life around.

He began taking Class A drugs to manage his grief after the death of his mother. He was now determined to conquer his addiction and go back to his wife and children.

Judge Hatton said the victim had suffered injury and discomfort.

Karim had pushed her with some force and left her on the ground screaming for help.