Victoria Huntley victoria.huntley@archant.co.uk TWO men who kidnapped a disabled 88-year-old war veteran have been sentenced to a total of more than 12 years. Craig Clarke and Nabeel Mahmood were par

Victoria Huntley

victoria.huntley@archant.co.uk

TWO men who kidnapped a disabled 88-year-old war veteran have been sentenced to a total of more than 12 years.

Craig Clarke and Nabeel Mahmood were part of a gang who bundled Joseph Newman into the back of a van and bound and gagged the petrified pensioner before robbing him and dumping him in the street.

The pair were sentenced at a hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday.

Mr Newman, who is disabled after being injured fighting the Second World War, was subjected to a "terrifying ordeal" after he was ambushed by the gang in Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green on Saturday, March 28.

He had just been to collect rent from garages he lets out in Malcolm Place when the gang struck.

Police say Clarke and Mahmood had targeted Mr Newman because he was a creature of habit who had made the same journey every Saturday for 40 years.

Mr Newman was bound and gagged and driven around in the back of the van for 45 minutes before being dumped on a roadside in Bow.

His wallet containing �360, a Freedom bus pass and keys to his home were stolen and when he returned home he found his Cable Street flat had been burgled.

Det Cons Darcia Babb said: "This was a terrifying ordeal and a cowardly attack.

"This gentleman is 88-years old and a disabled war veteran. He was extremely vulnerable and was taken advantage of.

"The garages have been owned by his family for three generations and he was doing the same thing he has done every week for 40 years.

"He does not trust banks and we believe there may have been around �10,000 hidden in his flat when it was burgled."

Clarke, 32, of no fixed address, was sentenced to six years and Mahmood, 20, of Bethnal Green's Rogers Estate in Globe Road, was sentenced to six years and nine months.

Both men admitted kidnapping and robbery.