Age: unknown
Sex: male
Date: 3 Feb 1985
Place: 696 Coventry Road, Small Heath
Shabir Hussain and Gulraz Khan died in a fire at a shop at 696 Coventry Road, Small Heath on 3 February 1985.
Two business partners, aged 50 and 46, were convicted of their manslaughter, but appealed and their convictions were quashed.
It was claimed that they had arranged for Shabir Hussain and Gulraz Khan and a third man to set fire to the shop in order to claim the insurance from their Zurich Insurance Company policy.
It was heard that Shabir Hussain and Gulraz Khan and the third man had met the owners in the shop who had given them instructions to set fire to the shop and that they had later returned to find petrol in the shop as arranged and that whilst pouring the petrol about that there had been an explosion in which Shabir Hussain and Gulraz Khan were killed, the third man being in another room at the time.
The third man was convicted of arson and sentenced to 30 months, however, it was heard that there wasn't enough evidence initially to charge the owners with anything.
They were initially interviewed over the matter on 4 and 5 February 1985 and later interviewed again on 25 July 1985 after which they were charged with manslaughter, arson and attempting to obtain property by deception, that being the insurance claim for £126,000.
They were convicted on 17 April 1986 but later appealed and their appeal was upheld on 5 December 1986. They had both denied any involvement throughout the trial.
At the time of the trial it was noted that the only issue with the case was whether it had been the two men on trial that the men had met up with when instructed to carry out the arson, or two other people unconnected with the accused men.
It was noted that the man that survived the arson attack had said that he had only met the men in the shop when they were instructed on how to carry out the arson and the only other time was at the police station after he was arrested.
However, he noted that when he had met the men in the shop the electricity had been out and it had been very dark and that the two men had shown them round by the light of lighted matches and candles.
However, he added:
The two business partners’s convictions were later quashed on appeal due to a technicality in the judges summing up.
In his statement, the third man said:
The first time I was told about the plan to set fire to the shop was on Sunday 3rd February 1985, it was about 7.30pm in the evening. I was at my house with my friend, Gulrez, who I met while signing on at Coventry Road Police Station. Another friend of mine, Shabir called and said that he had been asked to do an insurance job at a shop on the Coventry Road. He said that he had got to break in and start a fire. He asked us, me and Gulrez, to help him. He told us that the owners were going to leave all the stuff, petrol and stuff, ready for us.
We agreed to help him and at about 8.15pm, which is closing time for the shop, we went along and met both owners. This was a general grocers shop, but there was virtually no stock in it, in fact what stock there was had been placed at the front of the shelves to make it look well stocked.
Gulrez and me were introduced by Shabir to the owners. He didn't say their names but one was short and slim and the short, fat with a bald head.
They took us to the back of the shop and said that they would cut the alarm wired to stop it going through to the Police Station when we got there later that night.
One of the men took a pair of cutters from under the counter, they were about 8 or 9 inches long, and I think they had red handles. One of the men held the wires and the other held the cutters, with a handkerchief and cut the wires. At first they tried to sort out which wired to cut but after a while gave up and cut the lot, I think it was the fat one that did the actual cutting, the other man held a candle he had lit because all the lights were turned off at the time. After the wires had been cut, the cutters were put on top of the alarm box.
After this, we were asked to go upstairs. We were shown a door between two premises, it was covered in hardboard. While we stood there, both of these men ripped the hardboard off. As they were ripping off the hardboard they said, 'That's the way you will get through from next door', meaning the hardboard covered door.
We went back downstairs and the fat man gave Shabir a key with a yellow cap on it, it looked like a Yale key. He told him that it was the key to the next door premises and that would be our way in. The men told us that the petrol would be left by the alarm, at this time I did not see any petrol but the man said there would be ten gallons left.
The men let us out through the front door of the shop and one of them padlocked the front door. We could hear the alarm going off, this had been going off since they cut the wires. The noise was a soft buzz not very loud.
I left Shabir and Gulrez and went home by myself.
The men from the shop had said that nobody lived anywhere around that area, above the shop or any of the sides, so there would be no problems. The fat man had told us that we would be paid £300 if the insurance claim was successful, but they gave us no money at that time, we trusted them to pay up.
About 8.45pm my friend from 157 Malmesbury Road came to my house. At this time I didn't mention this job to him. He said he had had a row with his parents so I told him he could stay at my house for a while.
Just after 9 o'clock Shabir and Gulrez called at my door, they came in and we began to discuss the job. Shabir got the key out and my friend saw it. The key was passed around and we talked about the job. My friend wanted some money and asked if he could come and help but Shabir refused to let him because he hadn't been in trouble before and there was nobody in the house so we wanted to leave him in till we got back.
We decided to go earlier than arranged, which was about midnight, and left my house at about 9.15pm. We walked to the shop. We went round the back and Shabir used the key to open the motor spares shop next to Mansel Road. Shabir led the way through the shop and up a flight of stairs. when we got upstairs I saw that the door between the two shops, the hardboard door, was open. This had definitely been closed when we left before.
We went through this door into the grocers shop and down the stairs into the back part of the shop. I saw eight or ten plastic containers in cardboard boxes by the alarm box, we looked in the containers and found they contained petrol. Gulrez went into the shop and got some matches from by the counter.
We each took a gallon of petrol and started to spread it all over the shop. When we had finished this, there was some petrol left so Shabir decided to take some more each and spread it about. This left two or three gallons and Shabir told me to take one and spread it upstairs when they came up to join me. I started up the stairs, I got half way when I heard an explosion, all the building started rocking, I heard shouting and screaming. I couldn't do anything about it because of the flames pushing me back. My hair caught fire, there was thick smoke and I was bumping into walls. I found a window and got out through it, I think I opened it but I'm not sure. I jumped down onto Mansel Road, ran across the road where I saw a kid I knew. I told him that Shabir was in there and then ran off home.
When I got home, my friend was still in my house. When he saw the state I was in he asked me what happened. I didn't tell him at first and went for a shower. All the front of my hair was singed and the skin on my forehead had peeled off.
When I came out of the shower I told my friend that Shabir and Gulrez had been caught in the fire. I put the radio on and after a bit it came on the news, I was in tears.
The next day I met up with Shabir's brother and we eventually went to the Police Station to report him missing. I was questioned by the police and admitted what I had been involved in.
The only time I have seen the men from the shop was at the Police Station after I had been arrested.
However, the two business men denied that they had arranged for the men to set fire to their shop.
At the trial the prosecution noted that the accomplices had no motive other than payment for deliberately setting fire to the shop and that the beneficiaries from the insurance had been the accused, it being noted that the shop had not been a success and that there was little stock in it at the time of the fire.
A Superintendent for Zurich Insurance Co Ltd said that on 15 February 1984 a proposed cover for the premises of 696 Coventry Road in Small Heath was accepted, with the actual date of the cover being from 28 February 1984. He said that the premium for the cover was £423.45 per annum and that initially the cover for the stock was £10,000 and £3,500 for fixtures and fittings, with the building being insured for £90,000.
However, he said on 17 September 1984 that the cover for the stock was increased to £30,000 from £10,000, with the amount for the fixtures and fittings remaining the same.
He said that the company first became aware of a possible claim on 4 February 1985.
Although the loss adjusters calculated from floor plans and estimates from other shops, because the remains of the shop were too dangerous to enter, they said that the shop could have had about £25,000 worth of stock and £7,000 worth of cigarettes, but noted that they didn't think it would have had anywhere near that amount, and estimated that it had about £10,283 worth of stock and nothing like £7,000 of cigarettes, the final claim coming to £126,900 of which the stock was valued at £33,702.
However, a local resident who had lived in a flat at 746 Coventry Road said that he didn't use the shop on a regular basis, only to buy odds and ends like cigarettes or milk, mainly because there was hardly anything in the shop, and that what was there looked old and dirty. He added that the deep freeze that had been in the shop had just had a few things at the bottom of it and that it never looked clean. He added that on the times he did go there that there were hardly any people shopping and it was always quiet.
Another woman that had gone in for cigarettes on the night of the explosion said that she had asked for 40 Rothmans, but had had to buy them in packs of 10 as there was no stock, which she thought was strange, noting that the shelves were almost bare, and that a few days previously the shop had been well stocked.
Another local that had lived in Mansel Road said that he had previously used the shop on a regular basis but that about three months before the explosion that he had noted that the stock was old and out of date, and that it got to such a stage that some of the tins were going rusty. He said that the stock had deteriorated so much that he had started to shop elsewhere, only going there for necessities late at night.
Both of the shop owners had alibis for the time of the explosion, having each been at home with their respective children.
When they were initially sentenced, they had been given 5 years each.
They had taken over the shop in 1974 at which time it had been called Spenzer Supermarket and was described as having been thriving, however, it was said that business had got so bad that one of the men had had to apply for free milk at school for his children.
Their appeal was heard at the Court of Appeal in London. The court heard that there was a strong case against the men, but that the trial judge's directions to the jury on evidence that was said to have supported that given by the accomplice was defective, and that because of a ruling by the judge, the defence had not been given an opportunity to challenge the evidence and as such the convictions could not be upheld.
see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
see National Archives - J 190/287
see Birmingham News - Friday 18 April 1986
see Sandwell Evening Mail - Saturday 06 December 1986
