Monday 27th September 2010

http://www.bridgingandcommercial.co.uk/newsstory?id=1238&type=newsfeature&title=

An estate agent in Manchester stands accused of laundering hundreds of thousands of pounds of ‘dirty cash’ for a large organised crime syndicate.

According to the Manchester Evening News, Nasrullah Khan, 51, is alleged to have managed the transfer of criminal money from the syndicate to local banks via his business in Cheetham Hill.

Khan Properties, Mr Khan’s estate agent, was raided on 15 July in 2008 when two holdalls containing money, alongside bundles of cash, were found – the total of which amounted to £350,000.

According to the prosecution, the criminal racket involved Mr Khan’s office manager, Fazal Hussain, 46, of Woodlands Street in Manchester, regularly collecting large sums of cash and passing them on to Mr Khan’s son, Haseef Ullah Khan, who then took the money to banks across the city.

It was alleged that Mark Vincent Owens, 28, of Langley Beck in Cheshire, acted as a ‘go-between’ the ‘organsied crime group’ and the Manchester hub.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency  (SOCA)had the collections under surveillance but do not have direct evidence as to where the money originally came from.

However, the prosecution argue that the nature in which the money was stored and transported – stuffed into holdalls and kept out of banks for long periods of times – is said to imply criminal activity.

Shredded documents seized from the property were reconstructed and the prosecution believes them to be paying-in slips that show the transfers of criminal money into Manchester branches of HSBC, NatWest, Santander, Barclays, RBS and Lloyds TSB. 

Mr Connor, prosecuting, said of the defendants: “They were, it’s alleged, tasked by at least one organised criminal group to place the proceeds of crime into the financial system. They were one cog, but a very important cog, in a large operation controlled from overseas.”

He added: “This was a significant operation requiring accounting techniques of a sophisticated nature. We’re talking lots of cash and multiple third party bank accounts, all expecting legitimate debts and invoices to be paid off.”

The prosecution also spoke of CCTV footage and phone records to be used as evidence.

Nasrullah Khan and Haseef Ullah Khan, 28, both of Dane Road, Sale, and Fazal Hussain deny entering into a money laundering arrangement.

Mark Vincent Owens, 28, of Langley Beck, Widnes, Cheshire, admitted the same charge. Mr Khan’s brother, Chaudhry Amjad Khan, is also alleged to have been involved in collecting, distributing and banking the cash and is being sought by police.