Gang jailed for laundering £26m

Two men from Rochdale and Whitworth have been sentenced for their role in sending £26 million of dirty money to Dubai after depositing criminal cash at banks a dozen times a day for nearly a year.

Four men from Windsor, Manchester, Slough and Twickenham were jailed on Wednesday (21 February). The two  local men from Rochdale and Whitworth received suspended sentences.

The men, led by Mohammed Zafer, of Slough, travelled hundreds of miles to collect and deposit criminal cash at 100 banks from a base in Buckinghamshire.

They each acted as directors of seven different companies that were set up purely to launder money that’s believed to have been generated by alcohol duty fraud.

The gang created a false paperwork trail in a bid to legitimise the huge sums that was picked up by a network of cash couriers in just 11 months.

A staggering 2,376 deposits were made at more than 100 banks across 193 days between July 2015 and June 2016 – which averages at 12 deposits every single day.

Once the money was inside the UK banking system it was quickly transferred out of the jurisdiction and into banks in Dubai, where Zafer had business interests.

Zafer, 48, 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.

They were jailed for 12 years and three years, respectively.

Four other men; Sarfraz Hussain, 45, of Manchester, Anthony Foster, 41, of Rochdale, Shakil Abbas, 37, of Whitworth; along with Zorrabar Singh, 36, of Twickenham, admitted money laundering offences at Reading Crown Court in June 2022.

Hussain was sentenced to four years and nine months and Singh was sentenced to two years and 10 months, both for entering into, concerned in acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property (recordable) contrary to sections 328 (1) and 334 of the Proceeds of Crime Act (2002).

Abbas, 37, of Whitworth, and Foster, 41, of Rochdale, were both sentenced to two-year prison sentences, suspended for 18 months for entering into, concerned in acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property (recordable) contrary to sections 328 (1) and 334 of the Proceeds of Crime Act (2002).

Matthew Moignard, Operational Lead, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “These sentences reflect the industrial scale of this criminal operation, which was led by Mohammed Zafer.

“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.

“Anyone with information about any type of tax fraud can contact HMRC online.”

Kevin Hansford from the CPS Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate (SEOCID) said: “These defendants used overseas bank accounts 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 to recover the money has been launched.