By ALESHA CAPONE
THREE members of a notorious Melbourne crime family have been sentenced to prison after a crime spree including drugs, armed robberies and impersonating police.
The County Court recently heard the cases of Mohammed Tiba, his brother Abdul Tiba and their nephew Ali Tiba – plus a fourth man, Suhan Rahman.
The court heard in July 2011, Mohammed and Abdul attended a Delahey party.
There, a partygoer said he knew someone selling methyl amphetamines, which Mohammed and Abdul left to purchase.
On the way, they collected Ali at the Sunshine railway station.
After Mohammed obtained the drugs, he fired a handgun. Ali, 21, took the wallets of the party-goer and another man.
On 4 July 2011, Mohammed and Abdul pulled over a car in Thomastown, while driving a stolen jeep.
Mohammed told the car’s occupants he was an undercover policeman and took the motorist’s wallets.
The next day, police arrested Mohammed and Abdul- the son of Bassam Tiba, who was sentenced to prison for manslaughter after killing a Haddara family member- in St Albans and located an unregistered semi-automatic handgun inside the jeep.
Judge Mark Dean said he would have sentenced all the men to longer jail terms if they had not pleaded guilty.
He sentenced Mohammed – who had more than 90 prior convictions – to five years and three months in prison.
He had already served more than 710 days in pre-sentence detention and will be eligible for parole after two years.
Abdul was sentenced more than three years in prison and will become eligible for parole after 18 months.
Ali was sentenced to eight months, but was not required to remain in jail, after spending 335 days in detention.
In August 2011, Rahman was arrested by the Special Operations Group at a Sunshine Bunnings store in Sunshine.
He was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, after pressuring a Tiba victim to change his witness statement.
Rahman was convicted and released on a community correction order for a period of 12 months.
He was ordered to perform 80 hours of unpaid community work.
