Travel agency where PC shot dead to become takeaway

The former travel agency will become a baked potato takeaway called Phat Spuds

A former travel agency where a police officer was shot dead by armed robbers 20 years ago is to become a baked potato takeaway.

Universal Express has been empty since PC Sharon Beshenivsky was killed at the Morley Street shop in Bradford on 18 November 2005.

The sites since fallen into a state of disrepair, with roof tiles missing, gutters overflowing and the shopfront rotting away - but signage has now appeared on the building for the local chain Phat Spuds.

It follows a planning application being submitted to turn it into a restaurant and "remove the stigma" from the premises.

PC Beshenivsky was killed at the travel agents in 2005

The fast food chain also has restaurants in Huddersfield and Halifax.

PC Beshenivsky, 38, was shot on her youngest daughter's fourth birthday as she arrived at the scene of the robbery in the city centre.

When she approached with her colleague PC Teresa Milburn, three men burst out of Universal Express, shooting at both officers.

PC Beshenivsky's injuries were instantly fatal, while PC Milburn was seriously injured.

The gunman and his two accomplices fled with around £5,400 in cash.

Six people were subsequently convicted of charges including murder and manslaughter.

The ringleader of the gang, Piran Ditta Khan, was the seventh and final defendant to face trial.

He spent nearly two decades evading justice for his part in the killing of PC Beshenivsky but was extradited from Pakistan in 2023.

Khan was jailed for life in May 2024 and died in prison the following February aged 76.

The application to Bradford Council to bring the unit back into use stated that it had "carried a stain" since the crime and that the stigma meant it had become an eyesore.

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