20 February 2024 , 22:35
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A DPD driver was murdered by a gang of armed thugs in a targeted attack as he delivered parcels following an 'inside job' by one of his colleagues, a court heard.
Aurman Singh, 23, died after being "chopped in the head" with an axe, battered with a golf club, and stabbed in the back with a knife on August 21 last year.
A court heard he was ambushed by seven masked men who had been "lying in wait" brandishing weapons while he made deliveries in Coton Hill, Shrewsbury.
They were armed with an axe, a wooden stave, a metal club, a hockey stick, a shovel, a cricket bat, a golf club, and a knife, jurors were told.
Aurman "didn't stand a chance" as he was set upon by the gang at about 1pm before being "left to die in a pool of blood" on the side of the road.
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Arshdeep Singh, 24, Shivdeep Singh, 26, Manjot Singh, 24, Jagdeep Singh, 22, and Sukhmandeep Singh, 23, went on trial accused of murder on Tuesday February 20.
Police and forensics officers at the scene in Shrewsbury (Anita Maric / SWNS)Stafford Crown Court heard the defendants knew where Aurman was going to be due to "inside man" Sukhmandeep Singh, who also acted as a getaway driver.
He had worked at the same DPD depot as Aurman and used the delivery giant's computer to trace the victim's route and movements that day, it was claimed.
Prosecutor Simon Denison KC told the jury Aurman was part of a two-man crew doing their rounds when he was attacked by the men who were in two cars.
He said: "They had pulled up in their van, and his colleague was out of the van taking the package to the address.
"Aurman Singh was in the front passenger seat. Unknown to them, eight men in two cars, a grey Audi and a white Mercedes, had been waiting for them just down the road, and they had followed the DPD van along Berwick Avenue.
He was attacked by seven gun-wielding masked men (Anita Maric / SWNS)"Each of them was concealing his face with a mask, and each of them was carrying a weapon. Between them, they had an axe, a golf club, a wooden stave, a metal club, a hockey stick, a shovel, a cricket bat, and a knife. Their target was Aurman Singh."
Mr Denison said their victim had tried to flee but "didn’t stand a chance against those numbers and those weapons".
He added: "He was chopped in the head three times with the axe, blows which fractured his skull. He was clubbed over the head with the golf club with such force that the head of the club broke off and the shaft was bent.
"He was hit with other weapons including the hockey stick and the wooden stave. He was stabbed in the back with such force that the knife cut through one of his ribs."
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Mr Denison said the attack had "intended to kill" and paramedics pronounced Aurman dead at the scene at 1.44pm. The court was told his attackers then ran back to the two cars, but the four men in the Audi were apprehended "red-handed" shortly afterward by police. They were traced to a cul-de-sac in Tipton, West Midlands, after being followed by an unmarked police car and by a police helicopter.
Mr Denison added: "But the four men in the Mercedes were still at large following the attack. The four men in the Mercedes abandoned the car in Shrewsbury and made their way in pairs to Shrewsbury train station, from where they travelled to Wolverhampton, and then disappeared into the city. None of them has been arrested."
He also told the jury how Sukhmandeep Singh had worked at the same DPD depot in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, as the victim.
Mr Denison said: "He was able to access the DPD computer system to see the route that Aurman Singh would follow that day, with the timings of the drop-offs that showed where he would be, and within what time slot – information that he also passed on. Which is what they did. And when Aurman Singh and his colleague arrived, together they attacked him and killed him, in broad daylight, in a normally quiet residential street in Shrewsbury."
The court heard police also found a video on Jagdeep Singh's phone showing him and another defendant gloating about what they had done. The video was said to have showed Jagdeep sitting in the back of the Audi, holding the axe heavily stained with Aurman's blood, and Manjot Singh with a blood-stained wooden stave.
Mr Denison said the prosecution would not be outlining any motive for the murder by the five defendants. He told the court: "It isn’t necessary in order to prove murder to prove a motive, to prove why it happened. And in this case the prosecution will not try to prove why it happened. We don’t have evidence to prove why it happened.
"What happened in Berwick Avenue, Shrewsbury, on August 21 was the planned and organised murder of Aurman Singh. The attack itself was carried out by the seven men who got out of the two cars there and attacked and killed him.
"Three of those men were Arshdeep Singh, who wielded the golf club, Jagdeep Singh who wielded the axe, and Manjot Singh who wielded a wooden stave. They were assisted by Shivdeep Singh, who drove them there and drove them away again. And by Sukhmandeep Singh, the inside man who provided the information that they needed to be able to carry out the attack."
Arshdeep Singh, of Tipton; Shivdeep Singh, of Smethwick; Jagdeep Singh, of Dudley; Manjot Singh, of Smethwick; and Sukhmandeep Singh, of Peterborough, deny murder. The trial continues.