Andrew Rowe leaving the court docket after admitting falsely claiming advantages in 2019
A convicted terrorist has been despatched again to jail after hiding his job as a lorry driver from police.
Andrew Rowe, 50, did not declare the automobiles he was driving whereas employed by Serco as a garbage collector in 2019, in breach of a notification order.
Counter-terrorism officers have been involved about ex-offenders driving massive automobiles since a wave of assaults that started in Good in 2016, killing 86 individuals, which was adopted by assaults at Westminster, London Bridge, and Finsbury Park in 2017.
It is usually recognized that Usman Khan, the terrorist who killed two graduates engaged on a Cambridge College prisoner rehabilitation scheme at Fishmongers’ Corridor, had tried to get work driving a tipper truck.
Rowe pleaded responsible to failing to inform police about using 4 totally different automobiles on 9 events between August 15 and September 27 2019 after passing his heavy good car check and gaining a job with Hammersmith and Fulham Council.
Over two months, Rowe drove 4 totally different automobiles a complete of 9 occasions.
He was sentenced Thursday on the Outdated Bailey to 10 months in jail, having admitted the 9 breaches.
Decide Angela Rafferty QC burdened that notification necessities have been of utmost significance to ‘preserve the general public protected’.
She highlighted the ‘carnage’ of the latest assaults through which automobiles have been used as weapons.
Rejecting a non-custodial sentence, she mentioned: ‘You, a terrorist offender, drove a heavy items car on this metropolis with out notifying the police you have been doing so.’
Decide Rafferty added: ‘You clearly knew what your notification necessities have been, and this had been reiterated to you. This was a deliberate choice to not notify.
‘You understood any automobiles you drove throughout employment could be of specific curiosity. You determined to cease compliance with the necessities once you thought your chosen work could be prevented.’
She mentioned the necessities have been of the ‘utmost significance to maintain the general public protected from terrorism’ and added: ‘The modification to the necessities was towards a backdrop of the carnage brought about utilizing automobiles in a number of atrocities on this jurisdiction and overseas.
‘You have been conscious of the seriousness of the notification regime and the requirement so that you can comply. You selected to not as a result of it was tough.
‘The authorities should know when ex-terrorist offenders intend to drive heavy automobiles on the streets of this metropolis. That’s apparent and clear to any cheap particular person.
‘The notification necessities for convicted terrorists are imposed for the protection of all and to handle the dangers inherent in this type of offending.’
‘You place your personal self curiosity above the notification necessities.’
In 2005, Rowe was jailed for 15 years after being discovered responsible on the Outdated Bailey of getting a pocket book containing particulars on easy methods to hearth mortar bombs and a code for terrorism.
That sentence was lowered on enchantment to 10 years in jail.
The defendant, of St Johns Wooden, north west London, was launched from jail in 2010 and made the topic of a 15-year notification order.
He was notified in March 2019 of a brand new obligation to provide particulars of all automobiles utilized by him following a change in laws.
It adopted a sequence of terror assaults involving using automobiles as weapons in Britain and overseas.
In August 2019, Rowe informed an officer that he was on the lookout for a job driving heavy items automobiles.
Police turned conscious he had obtained work with Serco through a recruitment company to drive refuse lorries with out notifying them.
Since beginning his job, Rowe didn’t give police details about the automobiles he was utilizing.
Nonetheless, the court docket heard the defendant had informed the company and Serco about his earlier convictions.
In mitigation, Catherine Oborne mentioned: ‘This can be a defendant who might have accomplished extra to have complied with the notification necessities positioned upon him.
‘However he didn’t do nothing and what I’d respectfully submit is this can be a one who has buried their head within the sand and has discovered a really sharp and important lesson on account of it.’
She informed the court docket her consumer had expressed a want to ‘reside a standard life and get again in society’.
She added: ‘He was attempting to do a good job as a refuse collector. That job did give him delight and dignity.
‘He was described as the most effective staff for Serco they usually have been contemplating providing him a full-time place fairly than as company employees.’
On the chance of permitting a terror offender to drive a big car, Ms Oborne added: ‘In fact there’s a plain and apparent concern that the police would little question have about use of HGV lorries however there was no particular threat in respect or this defendant himself.
‘He was a defendant who had been launched into the neighborhood for 9 years and though convicted of different offences, he has not been convicted of any additional terrorism offences or and additional breach.’
The court docket heard Rowe didn’t wish to reside on advantages and had engaged with a portray and adorning course, and a college diploma in worldwide growth and NGO administration.
Prosecutor Peter Ratliff mentioned: ‘This defendant misplaced his job as a consequence of those proceedings.’
Rowe was the primary Briton to be jailed following the 7/7 bombings, when he was sentenced for terror offences on the Outdated Bailey in September 2005.
In October 2003, Rowe was arrested on the Channel Tunnel after travelling from Germany.
Officers discovered socks bearing traces of excessive explosive residue hidden in his baggage, believed to have been used for cleansing mortars.
Raids on his houses uncovered his handwritten information to firing battlefield weapons, a code sheet and movies of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden.
Rowe, dubbed a ‘Mujahideen warrior’ at his unique trial, was convicted of two prices of possession of an article for terrorist functions.
Sentencing Rowe to fifteen years jail in 2005, Mr Justice Fulford mentioned: ‘The contents of the substitution code are chilling within the excessive.
‘It refers to airports, airline crews, explosives, firearms, military bases and three targets. Within the put up 9/11 world it requires no creativeness to grasp what would have been inside your contemplation and what would have been your function.
‘I’ve little question that no matter terrorist functions you and unknown others have been considering, its fulfilment was comparatively imminent.’
Rowe had travelled to Bosnia on the peak of the civil warfare the place he was skilled in firing Russian made mortars and was taught easy methods to create codes so he might secretly talk with fellow plotters about weapons, explosives and targets.
On his return to the UK, Rowe spent two months in hospital after struggling critical leg accidents in a blast and claimed 1000’s of kilos in invalidity advantages due to his wounds.
He admitted two counts of advantages fraud and three counts of fraud by false illustration again in 2019.
Prosecutor Misba Majid informed Westminster Magistrates’ Courtroom in March of that yr that Rowe acquired job seeker’s allowance between April 2013 and April 2017.
‘The defendant, from a while in 2016, in December 2016, was in actual fact working and receiving cash for the work he was finishing up.’
She mentioned Rowe started to assert employment assist between 21 June 2017 and 5 December 2017
She added: ‘The defendant was additionally searching for varied different advantages, these being housing advantages and reductions in council tax.’
Ms Majid informed how in complete, Rowe was over paid £5,030 by the Division for Work and Pensions.
Ms Majid continued: ‘There are three fraud by false illustration issues. The defendant has truly obtained insurance coverage for a automobile and on every event he has been requested by the insurance coverage firm whether or not he had any convictions.
‘The defendant does in actual fact have plenty of earlier convictions.’
Ms Majid mentioned Rowe has seven earlier convictions for 16 offences, the newest being for battery in 2013.
Franck Magennis, defending, mentioned: ‘The plain reality of that is that it’s true that my consumer was convicted of significant crimes in 2005 however the unlucky consequence of that’s that it is extremely tough for him within the jobs market.
In October 2003, Rowe was arrested on the Channel Tunnel (pictured) as he travelled again from Europe
‘It was over a decade in the past. Plainly this can be a man navigating the roles market, individuals withdraw job gives after they see his convictions.
‘The defendant feels disgrace when having to declare his earlier convictions.’
Mr Magennis mentioned Rowe carried out the three automobile insurance coverage scams as a result of he was involved he would in any other case be unable to cowl his car.
Turning to the advantages rip-off, he mentioned: ‘While it’s true that he benefited to the sum of £5,000, he has been paying again that quantity at a charge that’s as speedy as attainable.’
Earlier than changing to Islam in 1990, Rowe was a drug vendor and petty felony.
He later turned a daily worshipper at Regent’s Park and Ladbroke Grove mosques.
After getting back from the Balkan battle, Rowe spent seven years visiting Islamist hotspots across the globe, together with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Morocco and Malaysia.
He vandalised or threw away his UK passport thrice to do away with incriminating visa stamps.
Rowe had claimed he simply wished to assist beleaguered Muslim communities in Chechnya defend themselves.
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