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Khalid Hussain
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Shopkeeper slams attackers lenient sentence
8/ 5/2008
A SHOPKEEPER who was beaten-up outside his own business has slammed his attackers' sentence.
Off-licence owner Khalid Hussain, who used to run the Premier Convenience Store on Oldham Road, claims the trauma of being attacked left him "unable to cope" and he was forced to shut his shop just four months after the attack - leaving him thousands of pounds out of pocket.
Magistrates in Rochdale ordered his attacker David Spencer, of Pilkington Street in Boarshaw, to pay £50 compensation to Mr Hussain after he pleaded guilty to two counts of common assault.
The 43-year-old must also carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £200 court costs.
A teenager, who also pleaded guilty to common assault, was given a rehabilitation order.
Mr Hussain, who ran the shop with his older brother Adil - who was also beaten in the attack on 19 August, dismissed the sentence as "a slap on the wrist" and said he was left with an empty shop he has been unable to sell.
He said: "My attackers have been convicted but they are living their life as normal when we are not.
"We had spent around £50,000 on the business so £50 compensation is not going to go very far.
“It was our first business and we were there about 18 months. Everything was going smoothly before that night.
"We closed the business just before Christmas, we just had to give it up because we couldn't cope anymore."
The young 21-year-old entrepreneur, who lives in Rochdale, said the experience had also left him weary about opening another business in the township.
In January we reported how the brothers claimed they had also suffered a campaign of terror when gangs of youths targeted the shop, smashing windows and daubing graffiti on the walls.
He said: "We would not open another business in Middleton. We had hoped it would be successful but apart from the attack, at the weekend it could be really rough and any little thing could set it off."
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8/05/2008 at 16:17