Millionaire who attacked burglar with bat is jailed

A millionaire businessman has been jailed for two and a half years for taking on a knife-wielding burglar who held him and his family hostage in their home.

Munir Hussain, 52, was told he was wrong to take the law into his hands and attack Walid Salem, 56, after the masked intruder threatened to kill him.

Salem, who forced Hussain's wife and three children to lie on the floor, was given a two-year supervision order. He has 54 previous convictions.

Hussain and his younger brother Tokeer, who lived a few doors away, chased the 56-year-old out of the home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, in September last year.

Witnesses said they saw the burglar being beaten while he lay on the ground, with weapons including a cricket bat, a pole and a hockey stick.

Sentencing Munir to 30 months in jail and Tokeer to 39 months, Judge Reddihough, at Reading crown court, said: "The attack was totally unnecessary and amounted to a very violent revenge on a defenceless man. People cannot take the law into their own hands."

Salem, who had two accomplices, was left with a fractured skull and brain damage and hospitalised for two weeks. He was unable to enter a plea to the charge of false imprisonment.

Hussain and Tokeer denied the attack but were found guilty of assault causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Salem is being held in custody awaiting trial for credit card fraud, which he allegedly committed in the weeks following the burglary.