A DRUG addict who spilled the beans on a £3.1 million heroin stash being stored at his Bradford home walked out of court with a suspended prison sentence.

In August 2021, Mohammed Bashir, 42, turned up at a police station and told officers about the drugs and cash at his house in Silkstone Road, Low Moor.

When they searched the property, they found about 30 kilograms of heroin in two laundry bags as well as a padlocked sports bag containing almost £100,000 in cash.

Last month, two brothers who were arrested as part of the police enquiry received lengthy jail terms and a judge heard that Bashir now lived in fear of reprisals from organised criminals.

His barrister Rodney Ferm told Bradford Crown Court on Thursday that Bashir, who was storing the drugs and cash to pay off his own debts, was now at continuing risk that ‘some time, somehow, on a dark night something will happen to him’ to punish him for what he had done.

Mr Ferm submitted that Bashir had acted with great courage and what he did needed to be encouraged.

He said Bashir had become involved because of his drug habit and the influence of others who had exploited him.

The court heard he had been storing the drugs and cash for about a week before he turned himself in at the police station.

Judge Ahmed Nadim adjourned the case overnight to consider how to deal with Bashir for possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and possession of criminal cash.

This afternoon, he imposed a two-year jail term suspended for two years.

He said that by reporting the drugs and cash to the police, Bashir had exposed himself to a continuing risk of harm from those who had left the property with him for safekeeping.

“It is without doubt in the public interest to encourage and incentivise actions such as those you undertook so that those who make an error of judgement by getting involved in serious criminality, when they do have second thoughts, they are encouraged to abandon the criminality,” he said.

Bashir had prevented 30 kilos of Class A drugs from reaching thousands of end-users and deprived the drugs economy of almost £100,000.

Judge Nadim said the unique and wholly exceptional circumstances of the case meant he was going to pass a sentence that was merciful and deliberately so.

Last month, the court heard how Bashir’s actions led to a complex police enquiry which resulted in brothers Daniel and Joseph Shaw being jailed.

Three days after the heroin seizure, officers arrested Daniel Shaw at his home in Albion Road, Bradford, and the subsequent investigation linked him to the collection of the laundry bags containing the drugs from an address in Rodley.

Shaw’s brother Joseph, of Green Road, Baildon, was also suspected of involvement in drugs offences and he was arrested in November 2021.

He admitted making two trips to London in February 2021 to collect packages of heroin and bring them back to Bradford.

Daniel Shaw, 25, admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine and being concerned in cannabis production. He was jailed for ten-and-a-half years.

Joseph Shaw, 29, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, producing cannabis and bringing the heroin from London to Bradford. He was given a six-and-a-half year jail sentence.