A man accused of gunning down a rival was cleared

A man accused of gunning down a rival was cleared of the shooting after a jury heard that he was hundreds of miles away in Bradford at the time.

Mohammad Anwar, 24, told the jury youths had shot HIM and smashed his father’s car in a five-month terror campaign.

Anwar had been accused of retaliating by blasting Sharaz Ahmed, 20, in the leg in after challenging him to a fight.

But he insisted he was hundreds of miles away in Bradford, Yorks, at the time of the shooting in Upton Lane, West Ham, east London in April last year.

He said he had been subjected to a terror campaign by associates of the victim and was replacing a car windscreen they had smashed at a scrapyard in the northern city.

Car wash operator Anwar had told the Old Bailey he was shot on March 4 last year as he drove through Upton Park.

Giving evidence Anwar said: ‘A black Ford Mondeo blocked me from the front and someone got out the car behind.

He said to me ”You grass”.

‘Then I was shot in the thigh.

I was scared and I thought I was going to die.

I ran to the nearest house bleeding and called the police.

‘

The court heard his attacker was later jailed for four and a half years for the attack at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

He said after he recovered from the shooting, he went to Bradford to replace his Toyota Jeep’s windscreen.

Anwar said: ‘I went on April 16, picked up the windows on April 17 and returned on April 18.

‘

The prosecution had alleged that Anwar approached Mr Ahmed as he sat in his friend’s Honda sports car on April 18.

He was alleged to have challenged Mr Ahmed to a fight and then to have shot him at point blank range in the thigh.

But Anwar told jurors he left Bradford just half an hour before the shooting in West Ham and could not have been at the crime scene at the time.

He also denied using the street names ‘Big Adds’ or ‘Killer Adds’ as alleged by the Crown.

Anwar, of [373] Wanstead Park Road, Ilford, east London, had denied attempted murder and unlawful wounding on April 18 last year.

He was also cleared of having a firearm with intent to endanger life.

ends