Members of an organised crime gang have been jailed for nearly 30 years after sending £26 million of 'dirty money' to Dubai as part of a large-scale laundering scheme.
Six men were sentenced to a total of 26 years and seven months in prison at Reading Crown Court last Wednesday, February 21, after sending millions of pounds generated by alcohol duty fraud to Dubai.
The gang members posed as directors of seven different companies from a base in Buckinghamshire and deposited illegal cash at banks a dozen times a day between July 2015 and June 2016, racking up a total of £26 million in 'dirty money'.
Once the money was inside the UK banking system, it was transferred to banks in Dubai, where Mohammed Zafer, the leader of the criminal operation, had business interests.
Zafer, 48, of Slough, and his cousin Shehbaz Iqbal, 41, of Windsor, were convicted of money laundering offences after a six-week trial at Reading Crown Court which ended in December 2023.
Zafer was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Iqbal received a three-year sentence.
Four other men, Sarfraz Hussain, 45, of Manchester, Anthony Foster, 41, and Shakil Abbas, 37, both of Rochdale, and Zorrabar Singh, 36, of Twickenham, also admitted to money laundering offences at Reading Crown Court in June 2022.
Hussain was given a jail sentence of four years and nine months, Singh was given two years and ten months in prison and both Abbas and Foster received 18-month suspended sentences of two years.
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Matthew Moignard, Operational Lead at the HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: “These sentences reflect the industrial scale of this criminal operation. Money laundering is not a victimless crime. It robs our public services of much-needed money, and it funds other organised criminality that harms our communities.
“We are on the side of the law-abiding majority and will investigate anyone suspected of tax fraud and laundering the proceeds of crime.”
Kevin Hansford, of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate, said: “The defendants used overseas banks to transfer vast quantities of dirty money out of the UK and in doing so undermined the UK economy.
“Whenever our legal test is met, the CPS will always prosecute fraudsters such as those in this group and ensure they are held publicly accountable.
“In some cases, we can go further, with our Proceeds of Crime team recovering criminal assets so offenders do not financially benefit from their crimes.”
Action is reportedly underway to recover the laundered money.
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