Notorious family who flaunted infamy with self-styled own 'brand' walk free from court after vicious pub brawl
Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Three siblings of a notorious family kicked out of their council house when it was found decked with luxury items have walked free from court over a vicious pub brawl.
Two men, aged 49 and 29, were injured after mum-of-seven Samantha Gabriel, 37, and her brothers Shane, 29, and Gavin, 28, became embroiled in a Wild West-style fight.
Pint glasses were thrown as one victim suffered cuts to the back of his head while the other had a black eye and a gash on his forehead.
The Gabriel family became notorious in 2004 when they were evicted from their council home in Padiham, near Burnley, Lancs.
They were removed from the property after investigators found it decked with a swimming pool, sauna, and jacuzzi, plus a four poster water bed and a £3,000 42-inch plasma screen TV.
(Image: Cavendish Press)
(Image: Cavendish Press)
(Image: Cavendish Press)
It was claimed they inflicted "21 years of anti-social behaviour" on their neighbourhood.
Family matriarch Janis Gabriel, then 49, and herself a mum-of-seven living on benefits with her late husband John was later jailed for six months after police said the luxuries were financed by crime - but she was cleared on appeal.
At the time housing officials claimed members of the Gabriel family had threatened to blow up neighbours homes and made threats to kill them.
They later abandoned the house after dismantling all of the fittings, including the toilet, bath and shower, switch sockets and kitchen cupboards - causing an estimated £12,000-worth of damage.
Gavin and Shane - who lived at the property with their parents - subsequently clocked up a string of convictions for violence and later the family designed its own logo: "Its a Gabriel thing - you wouldn't understand" based on the novelty clothing range - and posted it on their Facebook pages.
(Image: Cavendish Press)
At Burnley Crown Court on Thursday, Shane was given a community order for 12 months and Gavin received three months jail suspended for six months.
Both men admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Samantha who has seven children aged between 10 and 18 by different dads admitted affray but was conditionally discharged for 12 months after a court heard she was "reliant" on benefits.
The fight occurred in the Nags Head Pub in Accrington on March 22 in 2016 after a local, known only as Joe, made apparent offensive remarks to a pub regular.
Another drinker is said to have intervened but Joe fell onto a fruit machine - causing the fight to spread through the bar.
Gavin was seen to hit one of the injured victims up to three times in the brawl.
The court heard Gavin had four violence convictions whilst Shane has 15 offences on his record including a weapons charge and assault.
Last year Shane was jailed for 10 months for dangerous driving following a police pursuit.
(Image: Cavendish Press)
(Image: Cavendish Press)
Defending fork lift truck driver Shane, Brendan O'Leary said: "He lost his work through injury, found himself unable to work, his father passed away and he took to drink and drugs, particularly crack cocaine.
"I'm told by his family he now presents physically as a much healthier person. He's determined, upon release that he hopes is in the near future, to go back to employment.
"But last week he had a dream about crack cocaine and it scared him."
For Gavin, Mark Stuart, said: "He has been out of trouble since this incident He should have kept out of the fracas but he went to assist his brother."
(Image: Cavendish Press)
A probation report for Samantha said: "She is a single mum to seven children who range from 18 to 10.
"The two oldest are 18 and 17 and are independent, they don't live with her. Then the others 16 to 10 live at home and are all at school.
"The teenagers are giving her a bit of trouble but she's coping. The fathers are not really on the scene but have never been hands on even though there is contact.
"She has worked on and off but hasn't worked the last ten years. One of her children suffers from ADHD but that's stopped. She wants to get into the caring profession. She's reliant on benefits."
(Image: Cavendish Press)
(Image: Cavendish Press)
Sentencing Judge Beverley Lunt described the family's behaviour during the fight as "madness and completely stupid".
She told the two brothers: "There was no reason for you to get involved in this. Neither of you started it, why you got involved in it is behind belief."
Janis' trial in 2004 was told she and her disabled husband and their family were receiving £2,000 a month in benefits but paid no council tax or rent on their three bedroomed semi.
When police raided the property they found £10,000 in £20 notes under the mattress of the water bed plus electrical goods, DVD machines, video recorders, the home cinema system and numerous CDs.
The court was given a "guided tour" of the house by video taken by police when they raided the property last year.
A four-poster water bed was provided for the master bedroom, with a Jacuzzi and bidet in the ornately tiled bathroom.
(Image: PA Archive/Press Association Images)
The living room was equipped with a plasma TV, a large mahogany fireplace, chandelier and leather suite. As well as having a new kitchen fitted, the couple's conservatory had a heated indoor swimming pool and sauna.
The family also owned two cars, a motor scooter, a number of bicycles, several mobile phones, various camcorders, DVD players, stereos and televisions, and had boxes full of expensive electrical items.
The entire property was monitored by a CCTV security system and of the Gabriel's four bank accounts showed Janis had paid in £4,000 over five months.
Janis claimed her husband was a "penny-pincher" and said she got the money playing bingo and fruit machines but was found guilty of possessing criminal property.
She was cleared in 2006 after an appeal court ruled the trial judge's summing up was "flawed."
Dad-of-seven Mr Gabriel - known as Gabby - died aged 63 in 2013.