SEVEN cousins responsible for a wave of serious offending in East Oxford have been jailed for battering someone who insulted a relative.

Between them, Ishtiaq Mohammad, Mansur Rehman, Aftab Rehman, Imran Khan, Mohammed Ameen, Mohammed Bilal and Ashfaq Mohammed have committed a series of offences in the last nine years, including kidnap, violent disorder and beatings.

Their latest attack involved lying in wait at the Shell garage in London Road, Headington for a member of a rival family, before a sustained attack over an incident of “trivial rudeness” to a family member.

They were all jailed at Oxford Crown Court yesterday for between 12 months and four-a-half-years.

Police and community leaders said East Oxford is a safer place now that the group are off the streets.

The latest incident took place at about 10.30pm on September 19 last year. Mohammed Saad, 20, was threatened by members of the group in Cowley Road before a security guard at Tesco intervened.

Three hours later the men were waiting for Mr Saad and his friend Junaid Dogar as they refuelled their van en route to London to pick up stock for Mr Dogar’s Simpli Fresh store in Cowley Road.

A Vauxhall Corsa driven by Khan, 21, and containing Mansur Rehman, 30, and Ashfaq Mohammed, 32, blocked the pair’s van moments before a Ford Focus containing the rest of the defendants pulled into the forecourt.

The group then set on the men using their fists and a bottle while Saad was on the ground.

Simon Heptonstall, prosecuting, said: “There were blows to all parts of him while he was on the floor, people kneeling on him so they could punch him.

“These defendants are part of a family. They are all cousins, and they have an animosity, it seems, to others.”

Mr Saad, who suffered a fractured cheek and broken nose, was then stripped from the waist and hit with a shoe by Mansur Rehman.

Bilal, 20, of Cumberland Road; Mansur Rehman, 30 of Cowley Road; and Ashfaq Mohammed, 32, of Golden Road, admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Khan, 21, of Shelley Road, Mohammad, 35, of Golden Road; Aftab Rehman, 29 of Cowley Road; and Ameen Mohammed, 22 of Tawney Street, admitted causing grievous bodily harm.

Aftab Rehman admitted intimidation and Mohammad admitted assaulting Mr Dogar.

Jeanie Mackie, defending Ashfaq Mohammed, said the incident arose out of “rudeness and unpleasantness” from Mr Saad to a member of her client’s family.

Ashfaq and Mansur Rehman were jailed for four years and six months.

Bilal, whose younger brother Hussain Mohammed drowned at Donnington Bridge in May, was jailed for three years and six months.

Mohammad and Aftab Rehman got 18 months, Khan got 15 months and Ameen Mohammed was jailed for a year.

All were given three-year restraining orders against the victims.

Judge Christopher Compston said: “This was a disgraceful affair and it arises out of something so trivial that all of you should feel, and you tell me you are, deeply ashamed.”

Speaking outside court Dc Steve Martin said: “This was an act of extreme violence. The area is a safer place now that the perpetrators are off the streets.

“I hope the sentence will be a deterrent to others who might consider a similar kind of thing.”

All men had previous offences to their names. Mansur Rehman, Aftab Rehman, Ashfaq Mohammed and Ishtiaq Mohammad were all convicted of a kidnap in 2003.

Mohammed Bilal and Imran Khan were convicted of violent disorder in 2009 after a mass fight at the junction of James Street and Cowley Road.

And Bilal was also involved in a different kidnapping that ended in a teenager being beaten in Cowley Marsh Park.

Iffley Field Green city councillor Elise Benjamin, of Magdalen Road, was aware of the defendants’ history of offending.

She said: “With the track record of behaviour of some of these people it’s certainly an indication that we have some very good policing in the area. “It will certainly put residents’ minds at ease that some of the problems they have been experiencing won’t happen for the foreseeable