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MIDLANDS VOICE
Six charged with money laundering Six people have been charged with money laundering after a massive police operation last year. Officers seized high-value cars, including Porsches, a Range Rover, and a Mercedes, as well as designer bags, perfume, shoes, laptops, and a significant amount of cash. The raids were part of an eight-month investigation into money laundering by organised crime groups across Europe. Those charged included: Gurinder Singh, 27,
of Granby Row, Manchester, Razwan Munir, 38, of Egerton Drive, Altrincham, Nokhaz Adam Haider, 34, of Broomhurst Avenue, Oldham and Imran Sarwar, 32, of Prospect Drive, Altrincham. All four appeared before Manchester City Magistrates’ Court on march 18th and were remanded in custody to appear before Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square, on
April 1st. In addition Waqar Afzal, 51, of Wordsworth Road, Manchester, and Umar Murtaza Haq, 35, of Edge Lane, Chorlton both appeared before Manchester City Magistrates’ Court on March 19th and were remanded in custody to appear before Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square, on April 1st. All six men were charged with money laundering.
Jailed ex-mayor 'liar and a cheat' A former mayor and Scunthorpe councillor who helped to organise the first visit of the Queen to a mosque in Britain has been jailed for three and a half years for "dishonesty on a grand scale" by a judge who called him a "liar and a cheat", a court has confirmed. Jawaid Ishaq, 72, was convicted of a number of offences including fraud and theft earlier this week relating to how he dealt with the financial affairs of a friend who had returned to Yemen. Sentencing Ishaq, pictured, at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Paul Watson
QC described how the defendant had stolen tens of thousands of pounds from Ali Sultan. The jury heard that Ishaq had been a Labour councillor in Scunthorpe for more than 30 years, had acted as the deputy chair for Humberside Police Authority and had been awarded an MBE. The jury in the sixweek long trial was told how Mr Sultan, who has since died, moved back to the Yemen but had various affairs in Scunthorpe that needed looking after, which included two properties in the town. He signed a document
granting p ower of attorney over the two houses to Ishaq but the defendant used this power to syphon cash to himself. Ishaq was convicted of nine offences, including three counts of fraud, three of theft and one of perverting the course of justice.
58 years for ‘untouchable’ £1.9m Leeds drugs gang
www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 28th March 2015
Crooked sergeant exposed as a brothel boss has appeal rejected A disgraced West Midlands Police officer who led a secret double life as a ringleader of a sex-and-drugs racket has been told by top judges he deserves every day of his seven years and two months jail term. Osman Iqbal’s moonlighting as a brothel runner and drug dealer in London’s West End was rumbled when he turned up for his work as a sergeant at Kings Heath Police Station, responding to 999 calls, in a £170,000 Ferrari. The 37 year-old, from Birmingham, appealed against the length of his sentence imposed last September, which he argued was too long, with his cousin, Talib Hussain. Hussain, of Douglas Avenue Hodge Hill, admitted the same
offences as Iqbal – conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to supply, conspiracy to manage brothels and conspiracy to launder money – and was jailed for eight years and four months. But the cousins’ appeal bids were rejected by three of the country’s most senior judges at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, who said their jail terms were ‘not excessive’ in light of their serious
criminal enterprise. Iqbal, picture, and others had been in charge of two ‘high-class’ brothels, where prostitutes charged up to £300-an-hour to rich businessmen and cocaine was sold to both them and their clients. The brothels, which had been running since February 2012, attracted nearly 150 customers in just nine days – nearly 40 of whom bought drugs. The gang laundered the profits from the brothels into legitimate business accounts and by buying expensive luxury cars, giving the impression they were running a chauffeur company. The court heard Iqbal and Hussain were the ‘leading lights’ of the operation, run out of two properties in the West End of London.
Tycoon’s son who left toddler brain damaged jailed for brutal fight A multimillionaire’s son has been jailed for a second time after he got involved in a brutal fight. Antonio Boporan Singh, 28, was given a one-year prison sentence on Friday for punching and kicking a man when he was down after a night out. In 2006 he left toddler Cerys Edwards brain damaged and paralysed in a horrific car crash. She is now nine and requires a ventilator to stay alive. Singh almost killed her when he hit her car at 70mph in an 30mph zone while overtaking and was jailed for 21 months. He was released after six months. He has now been sentenced for another bru-
tal attack in Birmingham in which he and a group of friends attacked two men. They were involved in an altercation in a bar causing Jarondeep Kooner to lose an eye after he was slashed in the face with a champagne flute by Singh’s friend Theodore Mullings-Fairweather. When they left, they saw 31-year-old Harprit Singh with a ripped shirt. They assumed he was part of the group involved in the fight and set upon him before running off. Singh, heir to a £130 million chicken fortune, pleaded guilty to inflicting ABH and violent disorder and was jailed for a year. Mullings-Fairweather,
Antonio Boparan Singh
25, admitted GBH and GBH with intent and was jailed for eight months. Mullings-Fairweather also received another eight years for a separate offence of robbery after stealing a cash box from outside a Tesco store. Two other members of their gang, Nathan Pringle and Edward Ansah, were given 18 month sentences.
Hospital order for 'devoted' mother
Twelve members of an ‘untouchable’ gang of drug dealers have been given jail sentences totaling 58 years after they sold around £1.9 million of cocaine on the streets of Leeds. A court heard the gang’s domination of the drugs market in Leeds was close to a monopoly over a 12 month period. The majority of the drug deals took place in the city centre in front of the Malmaison Hotel, on Swinegate. It is believed 14 men involved in the operation may have generated a total of £3 million throughout the period of offending through the sale of cocaine, heroin and cannabis. They operated a series of ‘ring and bring’ dealer lines which generated almost 200,000 calls. The men were arrested from properties across
Leeds in March last year as part of West Yorkshire Police’s major crime fighting initiative Operation Viper. Twelve members of the gang were sentenced Monday and included five Asians. They were: • Shea Varley, 27, of Miles Hill Street, Leeds, jailed for nine years. • Aiden Gidman, 24, of Borrowdale Close, Leeds, jailed for eight years. • Daniel Franks, 24, of Miles Hill Avenue, Leeds, jailed for eight years. • Richard Varley, 23, of Monkswood Close, Leeds, jailed for six years. • Ashton Sutton-Barrow, 23, of Royal Park Road, Leeds, jailed for six years. • Kevin Steele, 27, of Potternewton Avenue, Leeds was jailed for four years, eight months. • Gurjodha Rathore, 25, of Scott Hall Road, Leedsjailed for four years, four
months. • Randeep Singh Mudhar, 27, of Cambrian Street, Leeds- jailed for four years. • Ralph Steele, 26. of Harehills Park Avenue, Leeds – jailed for three years. • Preetpal Singh Mallli (24) of Stainburn Gardens, Leeds- jailed for two years, four months. • Gurdas Rathore, 22, of Stainbeck Lane, Leedsjailed for 16 months, suspended for two years, and given 150 hours unpaid work. • Gurmal Singh, 22, of Alma House, Brentford London- jailed 12 months, suspended for 12 months, and given 250 hours unpaid work Shaun Varley, 24, of Miles Hill Street, Leeds and Alex Simpson, 21, of Potternewton Avenue, Leeds will be sentenced at a later date.
A "devoted" mother who killed her 22-month-old daughter in Bradford after suffering from delusions that someone was coming to torture her has been given a hospital order. Gundeep Sanghera, 37, pleaded guilty at Bradford Crown Court to the manslaughter of Amrita Kaur on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Wheelchair-bound Sanghera, pictured, sobbed audibly into a tissue throughout the hearing as the court heard how she killed Amrita when she jumped out of a firstfloor window in a suicide attempt. It is not known whether Sanghera threw her daughter from the window before jumping herself, or if she jumped with the girl. The court heard that Sanghera was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killing and believed that someone was coming to take Amrita and torture
her. Sophie Drake, prosecuting, said the defendant also believed that Islamic terrorists were using satellites to monitor her and were coming into her home. The court heard that Sanghera suffered from memory loss about the incident in February last year and cannot remember how she or her daughter came to be outside the house in Delamere Street, in Bradford. Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said: "This is a tragic matter Gundeep Sanghera and you have pleaded guilty, without prevarication and clearly at the earliest opportunity, to the unlawful killing of another person. That person is your 22-month-old daughter Amrita, who you loved deeply and you will never recover from this." Judge Durham Hall sentenced Sanghera to a hospital order with an indefinite restriction order on her release.
He said: "The doctors in this case unanimously come to the conclusion that you were very seriously poorly at the time. At the material time, you were in the grip of the severe symptoms typical of schizophrenia, with persistent delusions, including a belief your daughter was to be taken and tortured. A very grave delusion that must have affected you." He added: "It is necessary for the protection of the public from serious harm to impose a restriction on your release. Everybody I know will be working to achieve your recovery and to assist you to cope with the dreadful and tragic actions that unfolded on the 18 February 2014."