Credit;PA
A convicted terrorist let out of prison on licence after travelling to Syria to join Isis with pals has been sent back to jail for hiding a phone from police for a year.
Yahya Rashid also kept an email address secret from cops but he was exposed when he made an application to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) with the undisclosed contact details.
The phone number belonged to an iphone – which went against a release condition banning him from owning a phone with internet access.
The 23-year-old, of Wembley, north west London, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2015 after going to the Syrian border via Morocco with two friends with a plan of crossing.
After conning his way into Middlesex University with a phoney BTec certificate – despite having an IQ of only 65, he used his student loan to fund the trip.
Despite getting most of the way, he turned back – leaving his two friends to cross alone and was arrested when he returned home in March 2015.
After being let out early with a requirement to inform police of any changes to personal details he has now been put being bars for a year for not complying.
He told officers about other details when the law changed in April this year – meaning terror convicts had to give additional information – but kept his iphone and email address a secret.
Officers discovered he had made an application to the DWP and searched his home earlier this week when they found an iphone hidden in a wardrobe.
They also found a CV featuring the email address.
Rashid stood in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court wearing a black quilted coat and hoodie and dark blue jeans.
He spoke only to confirm his name, address, date of birth, and nationality as British.
Prosecutor Jessica Hart (CORR) said: “On November 18 2015 Mr Rashid was sentenced to five years imprisonment and made subject to a notification order for 15 years.
“That related to an incident where he travelled out to Syria to join the conflict in that area.
“The phone number has been in operation since November 2018. Since that date he had provided details on two occasions – in May and in August.
“On both occasions he did provide a mobile phone number but not the number listed.
“It’s was provided in relation to a DWP application and a CV found at his home demonstrated it was in use.
“The email was provided as part of the DWP application of October 17 this year. There is no indication of when it was active from.
“He was arrested last night and provided no comment in an interview.”
Rashid’s solicitor Margot Lound told the court her client had autism and only wanted to have the phone for social and work reasons – not for anything else.
She said: “I should start by saying that he is autistic. He is aware that he was at fault and should have disclosed this information.
“He simply wanted a rather more powerful device than the one issued to him by the police and wanted a private email address.
“He was using both of these devices for the best possible reasons – to keep in touch with his family, to keep in touch with his friends, to keep in touch with the college where he is studying accountancy, and to apply for work and it’s very difficult to apply for work without a mobile or email address.”
But District Judge Paul Goldspring rejected his autism as an excuse and said he didn’t believe he had heard the full story.
He said: “It is clear from what I have read that despite what your lawyer said there must be more to the reasons why you had a phone and hid it from police.
“I accept that you suffer with autism and that may have an impact on your thought process but I don’t accept there’s a correlation with you hiding your phone.
“It’s also right to say that you had opportunities to declare the phone.
“I don’t know what the harm could have been because I don’t know the real reason for you have the phone.
“It’s almost a year to the day that you got the phone and you have had two opportunities to do what you were obliged to and I believe deliberately so.”
Rashid was sentenced to 12 months in prison and will only begin to serve that time when his either his licence expires in March next year or a decision is made to shorten the licence period.
Concluding the short 15 minute hearing District Judge Goldspring said: “I’m not in any way taking account of recent events in relation to people breaching licence. The sentence is one I would have imposed notwithstanding recent events.”
