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CPS claws £4m back from convicted mortgage fraudster via property fire sale

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  • 18/11/2016
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CPS claws £4m back from convicted mortgage fraudster via property fire sale
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has stripped a convicted mortgage fraudster of more than £4m in criminal assets.

Reported on the CPS website, Adeel Mirza, a former IFA, was originally convicted of nine accounts of fraud in 2013.

This included seven offences of obtaining money transfers by deception and two counts of conspiracy to obtain a money transfer by deception. As a result, he was sentenced to six years in prison.

As part of his conviction, Mirza was required to pay back exactly £4,180,782,32 in funds.

Lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service Proceeds of Crime (CPSPOC) recovered the money as it arranged the sale of nine of Mirza’s houses in London, which was also where the bulk of Mirza’s UK property portfolio was based.

However, the properties were all registered to a trust in Jersey and the CPS had to register a confiscation order before it could seize the properties and sell them off.

Mirza’s fraudulent behaviour was originally uncovered after a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation that found he provided false employment details to secure inflated mortgages.

Mortgages secured by Mirza were held by companies around the world under different names, some of which included Mirza’s own family, though they were unaware of his scheme.

Holly Morton, specialist prosecutor for CPSPOC said, through the sale of the nine properties, it had ensured Mirza would not be able to benefit from his crimes once he is released from prison.

She added: “Criminals must realise that we will seek confiscation of their assets. When they are caught committing these kinds of crimes they will lose their liberty and will not return to lives of luxury on release.”

 

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