Leicester explosion: men jailed for life for shop blast that killed five people in £300,000 insurance plot
Trio will spend minimum of 109 years behind bars collectively after plotting deadly blast for huge pay out
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Three men have been jailed for life for murdering five people by setting off a “bomb-like” explosion at a shop in a bid to claim a £300,000 insurance pay-out.
Aram Kurd, 34, and Arkan Ali, 38, were sentenced to serve a minimum of 38 years behind bars for orchestrating a plot to blow up a Polish supermarket in Leicester during an arson attack in February last year.
Hawkar Hassan, 33, was also jailed for life and will serve at least 33 years for his role in the scheme to fraudulently acquire hundreds of thousands of pounds.
A five-week trial at Leicester Crown Court had heard the defendants left shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, to die in the explosion because she “knew too much” about the insurance policy taken out less than three weeks earlier.
Along with Ijevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, who was Shane’s girlfriend, were all killed in the blast as they sat in their flat above the shop.
Sentencing, High Court Judge Mr Justice Holgate said: “None of the defendants has shown the slightest bit of remorse for their wicked crimes.
“They were exceptionally callous and deceitful. They pretended to be concerned about the victims and even to grieve for Ms Ijevleva.
“Kurd had his prepared story ready for the media and the police. Ali and Hassan pretended to comfort and help the mother of Ms Ijevleva.
“In truth all three were only concerned to try and save their own skins. They repeatedly lied both inside and outside court.“
Ali, Hassan and store owner Kurd were unanimously convicted of five counts of murder and a further charge of conspiring with Ijevleva to make a gain, by dishonestly pursuing an insurance claim in respect of the fire.
During the course of the trial, jurors were told the trio acted purely “out of greed” so they could fraudulently obtain a £300,000 insurance pay out.
The court heard Ali, Hassan and Ijevleva had purchased 26.6 litres of unleaded petrol from a garage the day before the blast, later dousing the basement of the property in huge quanities of the highly flamable liquid.
The three men had claimed for loss of stock, contents and future loss of business before the explosion took place.
After triggering the deadly blaze, Kurd went on to shamelessly give interviews to media outlets describing how lucky he had been to escape alive.
Family members of the deceased read tearful impact statements before sentencing on Friday, branding the killers of their loved-ones “callous”.
Reek’s mother Joanne Reek told the court: “The light went out of our world on that terrible night.
“We have a Leah-shaped hole in our hearts. Leah was one in a million. She left a lasting impression on everyone she met.
“Seeing the men on trial showing no remorse truly broke our hearts – they seem to have no value for human life.”
In a statement read to the court, Ijevleva’s mother, Natalija, said she felt she had “failed as a mother to protect my child” because her daughter had not told her about the plot.
“My sense of loss is unbearable,” she added. “My thoughts go out to the families of the other four wholly innocent victims.”
The judge told the trio that the blast, which also seriously injured several people walking in the vicinity of the property, had caused an “exceptionally high level of harm”.
“The arson attack on this terraced building was exceptionally dangerous and put the lives of neighbours and other members of the public at a high level of risk,” he added.
Additional reporting by agencies