Family’s fright as drug police get wrong man

Reporter: BEATRIZ AYALA
Date online: 18 December 2009

A YOUNG mum has claimed police officers stormed her home and assaulted her husband in front of their two young children — before admitting they had the wrong man.

Asma Shabin (25), of Thurland Road, Clarksfield said she and her husband Gulzeb Khan (37) were woken at 6am yesterday by officers bursting into their bedroom.

She claims officers hit him repeatedly in front of their sons aged two and four before realising it was the wrong man.

She said: “When they started hitting him, I was saying that we’d done nothing wrong but they weren’t bothered and told me to sit down.

“My children were in the same bedroom, they were crying and screaming.”

Around 100 police officers carried out pre-dawn raids yesterday across Oldham on suspected drug dealers.

The Clarksfield property was one of 12 addresses targeted as part of Operation Font.

But officers were looking for its previous owner, not the family who only moved in a month ago.

Mrs Shabin said: “The man they wanted used to live here and sold us the house, but we don’t know him personally.

“I’m angry because the officers had a photo of that man and they showed it to my husband.

“When they realised it wasn’t him, they apologised, said it was mistaken identity and were gone by 6.45am.

“My husband had to go to the Royal Oldham Hospital as they had hurt his head, neck and shoulder.

“I’m considering putting a formal complaint to the police, they were too harsh and it has left us shocked and shaken.”

Supt Stuart Goodwin, from Greater Manchester Police, said the raids were the result of extensive inquiries over a long period of time, but recent checks on the house had not shown that there was a new resident.

He said: “We had very strong information that a person we were looking was at this address.

“Unfortunately a new family had moved into the property a couple of weeks ago and our very recent inquiries did not show that there was a new resident.

“While we work to minimise risk to public wherever possible, policing is an area where people unconnected sometimes get drawn into operations through no fault of their own.

“We have apologised and we have arranged for repairs.

“It is unfortunate that a family not involved in crime were caught up in our operation, but I hope the public will support us in our continued efforts to make the area they live a place free of drug dealing.”