Two men who fired three gunshots at a house full of innocent people causing them to fear for their lives in an apparent case of mistaken identity have been jailed for a combined total of 22 years.

Junaid Shakoor, 25 of Rookstone Road, Wandsworth, and Sohail Amin, 25, of Kimberley Road, Croydon, were both sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday, September 12 to eight years each for possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and three years each for possession of ammunition without a certificate. Both men’s sentences will run concurrently.

On Saturday, February 11, police were called at about 2.30am to an address in Eswyn Road, Wandsworth, after reports of gunshots.

Police spoke to a female resident who described being approached by a hooded man as she was smoking a cigarette in her garden. He got out of a blue hatchback car and had his hand behind his back.

The man asked her where she was going; she replied that she was going indoors and went inside. She then heard three loud bangs and someone shouting to the man from the vehicle.

At the scene, officers discovered a bullet had entered the house through the glass of a front window and embedded into a wall, while another was found to have struck a vehicle parked opposite. A third bullet casing was discovered in the front garden.

Six people were inside the address at the time.

While officers investigated the house, they noticed a blue Ford Focus drive towards the crime scene and stop suddenly before reversing at speed away.

A description of the vehicle was released and a short time later, it was chased by officers into a neighbouring street before both the driver and passenger decamped from the vehicle.

The driver, Shakoor, was detained by officers nearby following a struggle. Shakoor was seen to attempt to discard latex gloves which were recovered, partially ripped, on the ground next to where he was eventually detained.

The passenger, Amin, was seen to make off and discard an item from his left hand, on which he appeared to be wearing a blue glove. A pursuing officer described hearing a loud ‘clunk’ sound as the item was thrown.

Amin was quickly detained after being found hiding nearby. Officers from the Met’s Dog Support Unit arrived to conduct a search after tracing Amin’s route and recovered a small handgun which was clearly visible on the ground.

The handgun was a 9mm Baikal self-loading short calibre firearm as prohibited under the Firearms Act 1968.

Both Shakoor and Amin denied any knowledge of the incident or the firearm and gave mixed accounts for their presence in the area and why they had made off from police.

Shakoor denied resisting arrest and stated he had latex gloves with him due to having worked on his vehicle earlier in the day. Amin claimed he had thrown a bag of cannabis.

However, a picture of Amin with a gun, believed to be the same as the one fired, was discovered on his mobile phone and gunshot residue was recovered on an item of clothing belonging to Shakoor.

DC Andy Brackley, of the Trident and Area Crime Command, who led the investigation, said: “We are glad to see Shakoor and Amin have received custodial sentences for this callous offence against a group of innocent people who were left fearing for their lives because of this needless attack. It was as brazen as it was exceptionally dangerous. Given the number of people present, but for sheer luck, this could have easily been a murder investigation.

“The Trident and Area Crime Command takes all reports of gun crime very, very seriously. We would urge anyone who suspects someone of possessing a firearm to tell the police immediately to prevent offences such as this from happening.”

Both men were charged and both pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and possession of ammunition without a certificate at Kingston Crown Court on Monday, July 31.

None of the people in the house at the time had any links to criminality or gang crime and so officers believe the premises was targeted mistakenly.