Rapping illegal immigrant knife raiders attack Lindley couple

Nov 6 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Rapping knife raiders face deportation

TWO illegal immigrants rapped as they carried out a botched knifepoint robbery at a Huddersfield house.

Amin Ibrahim and Sami Tuhmi, both 18, will be deported after being locked up for the raid on Union Street in Lindley.

The failed asylum seekers from Palestine broke into the house in the early hours of September 26.

They claimed they were gangsters and terrorised 23-year-old tattoo artist Daniel Hartley and his partner, Laura Reilly, with a steak knife from the kitchen.

But they left a string of fingerprints around the house while collecting a bizarre haul of loot, including a pot of hair gel, a pair of women’s trainers, an American one-dollar bill and a laminated poem from a greeting cards shop.

They rapped about what they wanted and threatened to kill the couple .

When police arrived minutes later, Ibrahim threw the knife behind a chest of drawers in an attempt to hide the weapon.

The robbers, who were living at Lonsbrough Flats on Southgate, were arrested and charged with robbery and burglary.

Mr Hartley told the Examiner: “They were clueless. They didn’t know what they were doing. They were just spotty teenagers.

“If they hadn’t had a knife, I would have leathered them.”

Teaching assistant Miss Reilly, 26, added: “It was surreal. As soon as the police had got them I was asking who wanted a cup of tea.”

The incident started when Miss Reilly was woken up by a light in their bedroom at about 2.45am and then heard noises downstairs.

She asked Mr Hartley to investigate.