No. 7: The bedsit murder at Harrogate’s ‘house from hell’

On a Friday night in March, Daniel Ainsley went to Asda in Harrogate, bought a set of kitchen knives, then dumped all but one in a bin outside the store.

He walked to 38 Mayfield Grove, where his friend Mark Wolsey had been letting him stay in his bedsit, and stabbed him 15 times.

Eight months later Ainsley, 24, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for murder.

The incident sparked revulsion for Ainsley and sympathy for Mr Wolsey, 48 — but it also triggered anger in a neighbourhood with long-standing crime concerns.

Daniel Ainsley (left) and Mark Wolsey

38 Mayfield Grove had been dubbed the house from hell as far back as 2005 when a court granted a three-month closure order after a crossbow was held at a resident’s head.

A Stray Ferret investigation this year revealed that between April 2008 and July 2021, North Yorkshire Police received 255 reports about 38 Mayfield Grove from the public.

People wanted to know why the police and Harrogate Borough Council had not done more to tackle activities at the house.

Homeless payments

They were particularly incensed that the council had transferred £2,112 in 2017 and £5,424 in 2018 to John Willis Properties Ltd, the company that owns the house.

The council said the payments were “to help customers assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness to access private rented accommodation”. There is no suggestion of illegal activity by either party.

Locals said it beggared belief that the council had paid for homeless people to stay in a house that had been divided into six bedsits and where many tenants had multiple issues, such as drug and alcohol addictions and mental health problems, as well as backgrounds of homelessness and crime.

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They said it was difficult to think of a more dangerous scenario than housing people with multiple needs together in a terraced home on a busy street, and this problem should have been identified and tackled.

Daniel Neill, who until recently lived on Nydd Vale Terrace, a street parallel to Mayfield Grove, said:

“The entire set-up is a recipe for trouble. It doesn’t take a genius to work it out. The worst thing you can do with addicts is put them alongside other addicts.”

38 Mayfield Grove closure notice

The closure notice at 38 Mayfield Grove

Three houses closed

After the murder, the police and the council applied for a court order to close 38 Mayfield Grove, which meant tenants had to find alternative accommodation.

On June 28, magistrates granted partial closure orders against two other properties let as bedsits by John Willis, at 19 and 31 Avenue Grove, Starbeck, due to crime concerns.

Mr Willis later told the Stray Ferret he let 10 properties in Harrogate and was passionate about helping disadvantaged people, unlike many other housing providers, and did everything he reasonably could to protect them. He said:

“Other landlords cherry pick the best tenants and sadly that leaves a disadvantaged group. Homeless hostels are full. I try to help them.”

He said he’d taken many tenants from the council and partner agencies, such as Harrogate Homeless Project on Bower Street, close to Mayfield Grove, during his 31 years as a landlord.

Besides the closure orders, the police and council organised a residents’ summit and a community engagement drop-in session to discuss 38 Mayfield Grove and to reassure people that ‘the Harrogate district remains a safe place to live and any anti-social behaviour is taken very seriously’.

Mayfield Grove community engagement drop-in session June 2021

Police and council staff at the community engagement drop-in session.

But residents said the flurry of activity since the murder contrasted sharply with years of inertia that allowed crime to scar the neighbourhood and blight residents’ lives and called for action to prevent a repeat.

The police and council issued a joint statement after Ainslie’s conviction saying they had responded to and dealt with issues at Mayfield Grove “quickly and effectively”, and adding that criminals “will be held to account for their actions”.

Residents, however, continue to be concerned, particularly after a flurry of police activity on the street near the end of the year.

Arrests made after 2am crash near Harrogate Asda

North Yorkshire Police has arrested two teenagers after a stolen car crashed into several parked vehicles on Dragon Parade in Harrogate.

The Stray Ferret reported on the crash on November 17 after a bystander sent us photos of the aftermath.

Police said today the occupants abandoned the vehicle, which was later found to be stolen.

They added a 17-year-old male had been arrested on suspicion of aggravated vehicle taking and property damage. He was interviewed and released on bail.

A 16-year-old male voluntarily handed himself into the police and was also interviewed on suspicion of aggravated vehicle taking and property damage. He has been released under investigation.

Enquiries are ongoing.

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Drug dealer jailed after posing as taxi driver in Harrogate

A drug dealer posing as an Uber taxi driver has been jailed for over two years after dealing drugs in Harrogate in a liveried cab.

Azar Iqbal Rehman, 51, was arrested by police in the Asda car park in Harrogate where he had been loitering in the ‘taxi’, York Crown Court heard.

When police approached the vehicle and tried to confiscate the car keys, the fake cabbie tried to drive off, said prosecutor John Hobley.

Officers searched the vehicle and found 72 cocaine bags and 20 MDMA packets, as well as £710 cash.

Rehman, a married father-of-five who worked as a lorry driver, told officers there were “more drugs at his home”, added Mr Hobley.

Police searched his house and found a further 126 cocaine packets hidden in a lock box inside his bedroom and more cash.

Mr Hobley said the total amount of drugs seized was 85g of cocaine and over 6g of MDMA, an ecstasy-type drug, with an estimated street value of more than £17,000.

Rehman, of Rhodesway, Bradford, was charged with two counts of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply and one count of possessing criminal property, namely £1,255 cash.

He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence on Tuesday.

‘Half-hearted’ escape attempt

Mr Hobley said Rehman was caught in December 2019 when two officers in an unmarked car became suspicious when they saw the Uber ‘cab’ parked some distance from the entrance to the supermarket. Their suspicions were heightened when it didn’t move for over 20 minutes.

When they approached the vehicle, which was “liveried as an Uber taxi”, Rehman “appeared nervous”.

He was removed from the vehicle after his “half-hearted” attempt at escape.

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Along with the drugs and cash, officers found a mobile phone inside the vehicle, which had a “stream of text messages containing addresses”.

They also found a “dealer debt list”, said Mr Hobley.

Rehman told police he had been dealing for about four months under direction from others.

He claimed he had been paid £150 a week by his drug bosses, but a financial investigation found that £6,000 had been deposited into his bank account during the four months he had been dealing.

Addicted to cocaine

George Hazel-Owram, mitigating, said Rehman had never been in trouble before and started dealing after becoming addicted to cocaine and running up a debt to his own suppliers.

However, he conceded that although there was a “degree of pressure” from those higher up the chain, it “fell far short of duress”.

Rehman had been “directed to drive to certain addresses to deliver drugs”, added the barrister.

He said Rehman had worked “throughout his adult life”, lately as a HGV driver but “predominantly” as a bus driver.

Judge Simon Hickey said Rehman had clearly made a “substantial amount of cash” from his drug enterprise.

He said the fact that Rehman was making drug deliveries in an Uber ‘taxi’ was an aggravating factor as he was “operating under the guise of a taxi to deal drugs on the street”.

He said the police investigation debunked Rehman’s claim that he was only dealing to pay off a drug debt.

He told Rehman:

“You must understand that anybody who deals in Class A drugs is dealing in a pernicious, revolting drug because it causes death (and) misery.”

He said although it was Rehman’s “first foray” into drug-dealing and he had family commitments, it could only be an immediate jail sentence.

Rehman was jailed for two years and eight months. He will serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.

Derelict workshop near Harrogate Asda to be converted to flats

A derelict former workshop opposite Harrogate’s Asda supermarket will be converted into six flats.

Harrogate Borough Council has approved an application this week from TRG Developments to convert the building on Back Dragon Parade, which is visible as you drive into the supermarket from Bower Road.

The flats will provide rental accommodation for care staff working for Vida Healthcare, which the applicant is associated with.

The building was previously used by ironmongers Beardmore Dobson and Sons, which ceased trading in 2017 after 82 years.

In 2015, the council approved an application to demolish several commercial buildings on Back Dragon Parade and convert them into 14 flats.

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Call for police action against Harrogate Asda car park ‘boy racers’

A Harrogate resident has called for police action against ‘boy racers’ who regularly descend on the town’s Asda car park.

The resident, who lives on Mayfield Grove within earshot of the car park, told the Stray Ferret he would organise a demonstration if nothing was done.

He said people on streets near the store were tired of the noise and had safety concerns about vehicles speeding.

According to the resident, who asked not to be named, about four to six cars belonging mainly to young men congregate nightly in the car park and rev their engines and pop their exhausts.

The resident said they had raised the matter with Philip Allott, the police commissioner for North Yorkshire, and a police community support officer had agreed to visit the supermarket this week to discuss the matter,

They said they would now wait to see what ensued before deciding whether to mobilise support for a demonstration.

“Every night for years these idiots gather in the rear part of Asda car park where they rev their engines then race out of the car park and round Harrogate.

“I have video and pics that I gave to Philip Allott of a Mercedes that is there most nights and which nearly wiped out a couple of customers.

“If the police don’t do anything about it, we are going to arrange a demo at Asda.”

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A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said:

“We are aware of anti-social-behaviour problems around the Mayfield Grove area of Harrogate, in particular issues with speeding vehicles.

“We will be actively deploying specialist resource to the area which will include roads policing officers who will be robustly dealing with any offences.

“Officers will also be linking in other local organisations and utilising local CCTV to help us build intelligence.”

The spokesman said these measures were in addition to North Yorkshire Police’s ongoing Operation Crome initiative to tackle anti-social and illegal driving.

An Asda spokesman said:

‘’We thank the vast majority who use our car parks responsibly and we will work with the authorities to ensure that the spaces around our stores remain safe for our customers.’’

Retirement party between the tills for Asda colleagues of 33 years

Two colleagues who started working at Asda Harrogate at the same time 33 years ago have shared a retirement party between their favourite tills.

Sheila Fitzsimmons and Jean Lofthouse always served next to each other on checkouts five and six.

Their Asda colleagues decorated the tills with balloons and bunting for the celebration marking their departures.

Debs Harpin, customer trading manager at Asda Harrogate, said:

“Sheila and Jean were so popular with colleagues and customers, and had a lot of regulars who they had a good rapport with. They were always so friendly and happy and never had the Monday morning blues!”

Customers who had got to know Ms Fitzsimmons and Ms Lofthouse over the years brought in gifts and colleagues came in on their day off to wish the pair good luck.

Neil Barker, a service host at Harrogate Asda who worked with the pair for about five years, said:

“I’d really like to wish them good luck and thank them for everything they’ve done for us. It was really nice to give them a proper send off, they’ve been here a long time so it was great to make them feel appreciated.”

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Police issue CCTV images of wanted man after Asda theft in Harrogate

North Yorkshire Police has released CCTV images of a man it would like to speak to after a theft from Asda in Harrogate.

The theft occurred at the supermarket on Bower Road between 12.30pm and 1pm on Monday, March 29.

According to a police statement today, “large quantities of valuable stock” was taken without payment.

The statement said:

“Officers are asking members of the public to get in touch if they recognise the person in the images as they believe they will have information that will help the investigation.

“Anyone with any information is asked to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 2 and ask for PC 383 McCabe.

“If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

“Please quote reference number 12210108977 when passing on information.”