{"id":752637,"date":"2026-08-28T15:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/752637\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T15:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:58:11","slug":"golders-green-arson-attack-four-men-plead-guilty-to-destroying-jewish-community-ambulances-in-north-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/752637\/","title":{"rendered":"Golders Green arson attack: Four men plead guilty to destroying Jewish community ambulances in North London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four men have pleaded guilty to destroying four Jewish community ambulances in an arson attack, causing \u00a31million of damage.<\/p>\n

Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, and Saif Ali, both aged 18, pleaded guilty to a charge of destroying or damaging property being reckless as to whether life would be endangered on Friday.<\/p>\n

Atshatshi, Khan and Iqbal entered their pleas by video-link from Wandsworth and Pentonville jails with Ali in the dock of the Old Bailey.<\/p>\n

The charge relates to the attack on ambulances in Golders Green, north London, in the early hours of March 23.<\/p>\n

Three of the defendants were said to have set fire to the fully stocked vehicles, while a fourth waited in a blue Toyota Avensis.<\/p>\n

The resulting blaze caused gas canisters inside the ambulances to explode and nearby flats and a synagogue were also damaged by the fire.<\/p>\n

On his arrest on April 1, Ali threw his mobile phone out of the window, the court has previously been told.<\/p>\n

The defendant, then aged 17, had been in contact with someone in February with a view to buying a blue Toyota Avenisis and had done research online about how much ambulances cost.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Four men have pleaded guilty to destroying four Jewish community ambulances in an arson attack in north London<\/p>\n

| GETTY<\/p>\n

The prosecution had alleged Ali went on to source the Toyota that was used in the attack, with WhatsApp messages between him and a co-defendant relating to the purchase.<\/p>\n

The ambulances belonged to Hatzola, a volunteer-led ambulance service operating in the Golders Green area of north London, and were said to cost between \u00a3240,000 and \u00a3250,000 each.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have said they believe the incident was a targeted attack against the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

Four electrical charging stations and cables costing approximately \u00a35,000 each were also damaged during the incident.<\/p>\n

\"Burnt-out<\/p>\n

File photo of the burnt-out remains of Hatzola ambulances at the Jewish Community Ambulance service in Golders Green<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

\"DamagedA damaged ambulance in Highfield Road, Golders Green, London, after an arson attack on four ambulances belonging to the Jewish Community Ambulance service in London | PA<\/p>\n

According to the charge, the defendants destroyed four ambulances valued at more than \u00a35,000 belonging to the Hatzola charity.<\/p>\n

It was further alleged that the defendants had intended to destroy or damage the property or were \u201creckless\u201d as to whether it would be destroyed and life endangered.<\/p>\n

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb ordered pre-sentence reports for Iqbal and Khan, from Leyton, east London, Atshatshi, from Dagenham, east London, and Ali, of dual British-Pakistani nationality, from Walthamstow.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn ariel view of the arson attack which completely destroyed three volunteer ambulances | GETTY<\/p>\n

Remanding them in custody, the senior judge said their sentencing would take place in the spring of 2027 at the conclusion of a separate trial.<\/p>\n

At the same hearing, a fifth defendant, Subhan Ahmed, 18, from Walthamstow, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assisting an offender.<\/p>\n

Ahmed, who is alleged to have helped to get rid of the car used in the attack, will go on trial at the Old Bailey on January 27 next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four men have pleaded guilty to destroying four Jewish community ambulances in an arson attack, causing \u00a31million of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35884,59,57,58,388,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-752637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-across-the-uk","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-london","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}