As 2025 drew to a close, Birmingham Crown Court handed down immediate prison sentences to a series of dangerous offenders, ensuring they will spend Christmas behind bars. The cases, finalised in December, cover a grim spectrum of criminality including murder, sexual violence, and large-scale drug trafficking.
Violent Crimes and Sexual Offences
Among the most severe sentences was that given to Diogo Bettencourt, 37, who was found guilty of murdering his neighbour, Anthony Sharma, 43, in Erdington. Bettencourt beat, stabbed, and strangled Mr Sharma before concealing his body in a sleeping bag in his flat. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 11 years and 237 days.
In a separate case of predatory sexual violence, Mirza Begg, 34, from Small Heath, was jailed for 12 years. He raped, strangled, and threatened to kill an 18-year-old woman he had lured to his flat via a flatmate-finder website, Roomies. He also showed her a cache of weapons including knives and a sword.
Mohammed Ali, 23, from Handsworth, received an 18-year sentence for raping a vulnerable boy multiple times over several years. Police found more than 400 indecent images and videos on his phone.
Organised Crime and Drug Networks
The courts also dismantled significant drug operations. Joshua McCaffrey, 33, used his girlfriend's flat in Brinklow Tower, Highgate, as a drug-dealing base. A police raid uncovered nearly £300,000 worth of cocaine and heroin, along with two guns. McCaffrey was jailed for 12 years. His partner, Rhiannon Harford, 24, received a community order.
In a sophisticated prison smuggling plot, former prison custody officer Carla Moskot-Bretell, 35, and inmate boyfriend Darren Oakes, 47, were jailed for three years and nine months. They conspired with Louise Docker and Patricia Bucknell, 51, to smuggle cannabis and tobacco into HMP Birmingham by wrapping packages in cling film laced with spices to evade dogs.
Banaras Malang, 33, from Tyseley, was sentenced to eight years for attempting to convert nine blank-firing guns into live firearms at his home.
Dangerous Driving and Robberies
Makyle Taggart, 30, from Kitts Green, was jailed for 13 years and two months for causing death by dangerous driving. He killed 71-year-old Wynford Griffiths on Audley Road, Stechford, while speeding at more than double the 30mph limit. Taggart was reportedly drunk and 'showing off' on his way to sell cocaine.
In another incident, Kaiden Lemathy, 18, was sentenced to seven years for driving a Nissan at speed onto a pavement in Handsworth Wood, injuring three people. His passengers, Mohammed Najeeb, 19, and Ismail Khan, 21, received sentences of two years nine months and four years respectively.
Sex worker Caprice Brown, 25, of no fixed address, received a nine-year sentence for robbery. She lured an Aston Villa fan to a Birmingham hotel, where she and another woman bound him, assaulted him with a hot iron, and stole his wallet and season ticket. She was involved in a similar attack in Coventry months later.
Other sentences included Hermant Patel, 39, jailed for three years and two months for hiding £16,000 of class A drugs in a printer, and Lanlan Guo, 34, who received 20 weeks for breaching a court order designed to prevent human trafficking.
