x
By using this website, you agree to our use of cookies to enhance your experience.

A Birmingham property developer jailed for Britain's biggest mortgage fraud has been handed an extra 10 years in jail for failing to repay almost £30 million.

Property developer Saghir Ahmed Afzal was already serving a 13-year term after admitting his part in swindling banks out of £49 million, according to a report in the Birmingham Mail.

He was later ordered to repay a total of £29,276,565, but so far less than £93,000 has been handed over.

So the default sentence of another decade in jail was imposed at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Afzal was originally jailed in June 2011 over the scam, which included securing over-inflated mortgages for industrial sites in Aston, Saltley and Oldbury.

Mr Justice Beddoe said he was the ringleader of a scheme with “simple and, frankly, rampant greed” at its core, the newspaper said.

At a confiscation hearing, held at London’s Southwark Crown Court last year, Afzal, 51, continued to deny his involvement in the fraud, despite having pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to obtain money transfers by deception and four of obtaining a money transfer by deception.

He refused to take part in the confiscation proceedings and told the court he had "no idea" where most of the cash had gone.

Afzal bought properties alongside his brother Nisar, including a cowshed and an abandoned air base, and paid chartered surveyor Ian McGarry, 44, from St Albans, to provide false valuations.

McGarry, who was jailed for seven years, was ordered to repay £1,549,447.95p or spend another six years behind bars.

The Serious Fraud Office believes his brother Nisar, 55, who is still wanted for his role in the fraud, is in Pakistan.

Comments

MovePal MovePal MovePal