Shopkeeper who visited a widow to offer his condolences days after he helped a gang kill her husband faces jail after being found guilty of manslaughter

HSD1 · June 6, 2015

Ahmedshah Hatimi orchestrated masked raid on family run cash and carry
Liaised with Qatari king-pin to plan ambush with Lithuanian thugs
Owner Shammi Atwal chased gang but was pushed under truck and died
Hatimi, a regular in the shop, comforted Atwal's heartbroken wife days later
A shopkeeper who visited a widow to offer his condolences just days after killing her husband in a cash-and-carry robbery is facing jail.
Ahmedshah Hatimi, 31, was the inside man as masked robbers armed with sledgehammers and iron bars stormed the Glenn and Co store looking for cash.
When the owner, Shammi Atwal, 45, stepped in to defend his wife, he was chased by the gang and pushed under the wheels of an oncoming truck.
Hatimi, a regular customer at the store, fed the robbers information about the cash-and-carry’s security then fled moments before they struck.

Ahmedshah Hatimi, top, organised a masked raid on the cash-and-carry at which he was a regular customer. Owner, and dad of two, Shammi Atwal, bottom, chased the robbers on to the street fearing for his wife's safety, but the thugs pushed him under an oncoming truck
Days later, Hatimi visited Mr Shammi’s grief-stricken wife, Damanjeet Kaur, offering his condolences, but keeping secret his part in her husband’s death.
‘Mr Hatimi was a regular customer of the cash-and-carry, he knew Mr Atwal and his wife,’ said prosecutor David Howker QC.
‘After the death of Mr Atwal, Mr Hatimi went to their house to pay his respects to the widow, keeping quiet about the fact he was part of the team that robbed them.’
Six members of the robbery team were convicted last year of manslaughter and conspiracy to rob and locked up for a total of more than 70 years.
Hatimi, who stood trial at the Old Bailey separately, admitted conspiracy to rob and was today convicted of manslaughter.
He will be sentenced on Friday morning.
He was recruited by the raid’s mastermind, Qatari-born Farhan Sheikh, 40, to give him tips on security systems at the cash-and-carry.
On the day of the raid, on October 14, 2013, Hatimi went to the store in River Road, Barking, Essex, posing to be a regular customer.
He was in constant text and phone contact with Sheikh, who lay in wait outside with Lithuanians Deibidas Sumskas, 26, Edgaras Balezantis, 26, Vidmantas Gonskoves, 27, Aurimas Diliunas, 28, and Reiniks Kivers, 29.
Six masked robbers stormed the Glenn & Co cash and carry in Barking, Essex armed with sledgehammers and crowbars in October 2013
When Hatimi signaled that Mr Atwal’s guard dogs had been taken for a walk, Sheikh gave the order to strike.
Up to ten masked men wielding sledgehammers and crowbars smashed through the security doors and into the packed shop.
Mrs Kaur was dragged from the office by her hair and her purse was snatched, but tragedy struck when Mr Atwal tried to defend her.
CCTV footage caught the final moments when he was chased from the store and pushed under the wheels of a passing truck.
Mr Atwal was crushed by the heavy goods vehicle and died from his injuries..
Mr Howker said the gang believed there was at least £12,000 in the safe, but they got away with just £1,000 that was in Mrs Kaur’s handbag.
‘Mr Hatimi played the part of the inside man’, he told the court.
‘He used his familiarity with the premises, having been there on a number of occasions as a customer, and his knowledge of the layout to assist the rest of the gang to commit the robbery.’
Hatimi, who said he was recruited months prior to the raid, admitted telling Sheikh what type of security locks they may face and how many staff worked at the store.
Deibidas Sumskas, left, Aurimas Diliunas, centre, and Edgaras Balezantis, right, were also convicted of manslaughter and conspiracy to rob in connection with the raid. The gang was jailed for a total of 71 years

Vidmantas Gorskoves, left, Reiniks Kivers, centre and Farhan Sheikh, right, were all found guilty on the unanimous verdicts of the jury of manslaughter and conspiracy to rob following a trial in June last year
On the day of the raid, Hatimi claimed he had tried to abort the robbery because the store was full of customers.
He claimed he walked away before the gang of robbers struck, but the jury found he had already completed his part as the inside man.
‘Nobody moved in the robbery until Hatimi provided the necessary information to enable Sheikh to say when the moment was right to strike,’ said Mr Howker.
Hatimi said he was forced to visit Mrs Kaur by his elder brother, as they were regular customers at the cash-and-carry.
‘He told me that he wanted to go to this person’s house for the condolences, and asked if I could take him in the car’, he said through an interpreter.
‘I couldn’t refuse him but I felt a lot of shame.
What you men did has had devastating and catastrophic consequences on the family who have to live with this for the rest of their lives, long after you are released from the sentences I have passed today.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard, Common Serjeant of London
‘I felt really shameful and I couldn’t look at anybody.
‘Within ten minutes I told my brother we had to leave.’
At the sentencing hearing last year, Mrs Kaur told the court she was struggling to cope without her devoted husband.
‘I loved my husband with all my heart and he loved his family and children,’ she said.
‘Our life was a perfect little family and we had so much to look forward to.’
She previously told the court that she believed the men were racist thugs whose sole intention was to kill her and her husband.
Hatimi, of Ilford, denied manslaughter but admitted conspiracy to rob.
The six masked robbers found guilty of carrying out the horror raid were jailed for more than 70 years in January last year.

Kivers, of no fixed address, and Sheikh, of Barking, were both sentenced to 13 years behind bars.
Diliunas, also of Barking, was given 11 years and eight months imprisonment.
Balezantis, of East Ham, Sumskas, of Victoria Docks, and Gonskoves, of Plaistow, were each jailed for 11 years and four months.
In sentencing them, Judge Nicholas Hilliard, Common Serjeant of London, praised Mr Atwal's bravery and courage and said his last thoughts were 'undoubtedly for his wife'.

CCTV: Final moments of hero shopkeeper Shammi Atwal

Officers take a look around the interior of the cash and carry store after the armed robbery in October 2013
He said: 'He was 45 years old, a married man with two children aged seven and four.
'In a moving statement Damanjeet Kaur his widow describes what was their "perfect little family" and all that they had to look forward to.
'What you men did has had devastating and catastrophic consequences on the family who have to live with this for the rest of their lives, long after you are released from the sentences I have passed today.'