Asad Mohammed Quasim, 20, was caught in a car with an arsenal of weapons at the supermarket in Bordesley Green in February last year. He and his accomplice, Johnzeb Anwar, were intent on robbing a cash delivery driver and were armed and ready when police officers pounced.
Both men were given eight-year sentences for conspiracy to rob and having a firearm after pleading guilty at Birmingham Crown Court last August. But after a successful appeal by Anwar in February, in which his term was cut to six years and three months, Quasim on Friday won an identical sentence cut.
At the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Holgate said the delivery driver had seen the pair’s Peugeot when he went to the Lidl store on February 7 and became suspicious. When he saw it again the following week, he called police, who attended immediately and arrested the two men. In the car, they found gloves and balaclavas, a machete with a 20-inch blade, an axe and an imitation handgun.
Quasim, of Ward End Park Road, had never been before a criminal court before, but confessed to having a serious drug problem. He said he had been convinced to commit a robbery in order to pay off a large debt to drug dealers.
In February, Anwar appealed and saw his sentence slashed to six years and three months. On Friday, lawyers for Quasim argued that he should get the same.
The court heard that, although the men now have the same sentence for the Lidl offences, Anwar is serving a consecutive term for a burglary.
