Sunderland chef who wanted to fight for Islamic State has his 'too soft' jail term INCREASED by country's top judge

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 37, of Burnville Road, was jailed for five years at Newcastle Crown Court on November 13 last year - the day of the Paris bombings.

He was convicted of 10 terror crimes, including preparing to travel to Syria to fight, plotting to fund terrorism and trying to win support for Islamic State.

The Solicitor-General, Robert Buckland QC, argued at London's Appeal Court that five years was nowhere near enough to mark the gravity of Kahar's crimes.

And today the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas, agreed the sentence was "unduly lenient" - and increased it to eight years.

The father-of-six tried to recruit others to fight for IS, planning to join the terrorist group in Syria himself and disseminating terrorist publications.

Mr Buckland earlier told the judge that Kahar made a 'real plan' to travel to Syria against the 'background of waves of catastrophic terrorist attacks on innocent civilians across the world'.

But Kahar's lawyers said that, although he had made enquiries about travelling to Turkey, he had never even bought a ticket.

If he had made it to Syria, he would have ended up as 'one more fighter' or possibly 'got cold feet at the border', they argued.

But evidence on Kahar's iPhone and computers showed he had sought guidance from others on what to pack for Syria and whether he should take his wife and children with him.

He chatted online with a Jihadi who called himself "Slave of Allah" and others about providing funds for terrorism and urged his nephew in Bangladesh to join up with IS.

He placed an issue of IS magazine, "Dabiq", on his Facebook profile, which glorified terrorism and depicted execution-style murders.

Kahar was convicted of fundraising for the purposes of terrorism and engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism.

He was also found guilty of five counts of dissemination of a terrorist publication and three of inviting support for a proscribed organisation.

Increasing his sentence today, Lord Thomas said Kahar was guilty of "serious offending of its type".

He had shown "persistence in attempting to persuade others to join IS and fight for them or to join in their terrorism".

"Kahar must therefore serve a total sentence of eight years", concluded the judge, who was sitting with four other senior judges.