Jail for men who robbed vulnerable man at knifepoint - before returning to steal his mum's ashes

Shamas Star (30) and Jay Cummings (46) were jailed on Friday at Sheffield Crown Court for their part in the incident in the Moorgate area in January last year.

The court heard how Star and Cummings attended the address of the victim on January 15 2020, whom Star had befriended months earlier.

They demanded money from the victim and Star assaulted him, before they took his TV and mobile phone.

Pictured above: Jay Cummings.

They had then returned the following evening, with a third man, Tyrese Cummings-Blair, and Star again assaulted the victim, threatened the man with a knife and threatened to have him shot.

The victim managed to escape the property before the three men stole the victim’s mother’s ashes and their medication.

Between Christmas Day last year and January 7 of this year, the victim was contacted by an unknown man claiming to have spoken to Star and asking him not to attend court in exchange for either money or the stolen items being replaced. The same man threatened the victim on January 7 with violence if the case was not dropped.

Police said intelligence work identified that Star had actually called the victim from within prison on remand having illegally obtained a sim card.

Further investigative work on the number revealed Star had also been in breach of a restraining order in relation to a previous victim of domestic abuse by him by pressuring them to also contact the victim on his behalf and try and get him to drop the case.

Star of St John’s Green, Rotherham, was jailed for nearly eight years – 94 months – in total.

He pleaded guilty to robbery, affray, perverting the course of justice, breach of a restraining order and having an illegal item in prison.

Star was given 64 months for robbery and a consecutive 18 months for the affray. He also received 12 months for the other offences to run consecutively.

Cummings, of Roseberry Street in Rotherham, pleaded guilty to robbery and affray and received 45 months in total.

Cummings-Blair, aged 21 at the time of Roseberry Street in Rotherham, also pleaded guilty to affray and received a 15-month jail term suspended for 18 months.

Joanne Dixon, an investigations officer in CID who oversaw the case, said: “These men targeted a vulnerable person and attacked them in their own home, causing them much distress and taking some very personal items.

“They then subjected the victim, and the second victim of the previous domestic abuse offences, to a long and trying 18 months, before finally pleading guilty to the offences on the day of the trial.

“They have now been subjected to justice, and we implore all victims of such offences to come forward to us so we can try our utmost to help you shake off the shackles of such controlling influences which may be affecting your lives.”