Four plead guilty to arson attack on Jewish community ambulances

Four men have pleaded guilty to destroying four Jewish community ambulances in an arson attack causing £1m of damage in north-west London.

Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, and Saif Ali, both aged 18, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to a charge of destroying or damaging property being reckless whether life would be endangered.

The attack, which took place in the early hours of 23 March, saw four vehicles operated by the charity Hatzola set alight in Golders Green.

Prosecutors had said they believed the incident was a targeted attack against the Jewish community.

The court heard three of the men set fire to the fully stocked ambulances, while a fourth had waited in a nearby car.

After the ambulances were set alight, gas canisters exploded inside the vehicles.

As well as destroying each of the £250,000 vehicles, the fire damaged four electrical charging stations and cables costing approximately £5,000 each.

Leo Seelig, prosecuting, told the court that the Crown Prosecution Service would be arguing that the four men should be sentenced on the basis that the arson attack was related to terrorism.

Mrs Justice Cheema Grubb said she would not rule on the question of terrorism at this stage - with defence counsel arguing that there was no evidence for such a connection.

The judge said that the four would be sentenced following the outcome a trial of a fifth man, Subhan Ahmed, who has denied assisting an offender.

Iqbal and Khan, of Leyton, Atshatshi, of Dagenham, and Ali, of Walthamstow, were remanded into custody.

Run by volunteers, Hatzola has served the north London community of Golders Green, which has a large Jewish population, since 1979.

Hatzola, the Hebrew word for save or rescue, is a large non-profit, Jewish-led organisation that provides a free emergency medical response and transportation to hospitals regardless of faith by volunteer medics.