Rushden men jailed for more than 40 years for failed shotgun murder plot

Masimba Tinofirei, 19, and Narinder Sondhi, 38, were both found guilty of attempted murder at Birmingham Crown Court in September.

Today they were each sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Another man, Calvin Scott, 19, has been sentenced to two and a half years after been found guilty of perverting the course of justice in relation to the incident.

He was also sentenced to three and half years for an unrelated drugs offence, to run consecutively.

Tinofirei, of Maple Road, Rushden, and Sondhi, of The Hedges, Rushden, were found guilty of shooting the 32-year-old man in Hayway, Rushden, in the early hours of July 5, 2015.

The victim was approached by the two men who threatened him with a shotgun before shooting him in the back and head with pellets.

He was taken to University Hospital Coventry with numerous injuries but survived the incident.

Scott, of Upper Queen Street, Rushden, helped to dispose of a car used by Tinofirei and Sondhi in the incident.

It was found on fire in Yelden two days after the shooting.

All three men denied the charges against them but a jury found them guilty of all offences after an 11-day trial.

The incident was investigated as part of Operation Worcester, a police drive to tackle drugs and firearms offences in Wellingborough and East Northants.

Det Insp Lee McBride, who led the investigation, said: “I welcome the sentence imposed by the court today as it fairly represents the gravity of this incident.

“This was an unprovoked attack which has had a lasting impact on the victim.

“I am sure Tinofirei and Sondhi’s intention was to kill him and it is more through luck than judgement that they failed to do so.”

Northamptonshire Police has been working closely with partners in East Northants and Wellingborough to tackle violence in the past 12 months.

Det Insp McBride said: “The level of violence we saw in this crime is clearly unacceptable and we want to ensure that we are doing all we can to prevent further incidents of this nature from taking place.

“We are working closely with partners to look at long-term solutions to both tackle those people who are committing violence offences, but also to prevent people from getting involved in a world of drugs and violence in the first place.”