Ex-councillor jailed for money laundering

Businessman Mohammed Ansar was caught out when police investigating the ill-gotten gains of his drug dealing sons Shamraiz and Khobibe found amounts of money that could not be otherwise explained.

The father of seven, who was said to have been dodging paying tax, later owned up, claiming he knew the cash represented the proceeds of tax evasion, but did not know it was from drug supplying, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Ansar, a former Pendle borough and Nelson town councillor and said to have had considerable standing in the community, had put up a £10,000 surety in tainted money to get Khobibe bail. He had also built up a portfolio of property and started a business, St Paul’s Properties, described by the prosecution as “ a name with a bank account.” It had been set up, but not in Ansar’s name, allegedly to evade tax, but was paid about £110,000 from Pendle Council in housing benefits, as well as £39,000 in private rents.

The defendant (49), of St Paul’s Road, Nelson, had earlier admitted five counts of disguising, converting or transferring criminal property between April, 2003 and January, 2007. He had no previous convictions. Ansar, who has also worked for charity and voluntarily alongside the youth offending team, will face a proceeds of crime hearing.at a later date.

Money laundering allegations against Amer Ansar (23), Sohail Ansar (30), Raqiya Ansar (50) and Sadiya Ansar (25), all of St Paul’s Road, have been left to lie on the file. They had denied the counts against them.

Mr Jeremy Grout-Smith (prosecuting) said it was the Crown’s case Ansar was the instigator and at the centre of money laundering activities revealed by the police investigation.

He had built up a property portfolio from the proceeds of his own fraudulent conduct and the criminal conduct of Shamraiz and Khobibe Ansar. The Crown could not say how much of the money came from drugs and how much from fraud.

Mr Grout-Smith said Shamraiz and Khobibe were both jailed for conspiring to supply heroin between April and August, 2007. Shamraiz got six years and Khobibe was given four years four months. Police found all the Ansar family, except the two brothers, had bought houses and there were large amounts of cash involved.

An extensive financial enquiry took place and discovered St Paul’s Properties, a name with a bank account, which had been set up to evade tax. An account had been opened in December, 2001. It was dormant for nearly a year, Ansar became a signatory and all cheques were signed by him alone. It was claimed the business operated from Every Street, Nelson. There was an office there, above a small textile factory, but it was no more than a letter box for the business.

Mr Grout-Smith continued: “That business was never registered for VAT. No tax returns were ever made and Mohammed Ansar’s own tax return did not refer to St Paul’s Properties. No tax has been paid at all in respect of that business.” The total amount in the charges was £92,050.

Mr Ricky Holland, for Ansar, urged the judge not to pass an immediate custodial sentence. He said although St Paul’s Properties was not registered for tax, it was a legitimate business. He said: “It was only by virtue of his own difficult credit position, that the account was not opened in his name.”

Ansar, who came to this country in 1969, had run a clothes shop, a taxi firm, an off licence and had worked as an HGV driver.

Mr Holland said the defendant had considerable standing in his community and the offences were a “quite considerable fall from grace on his behalf.”

The barrister continued: “He will have to work doubly hard if he is going to get anywhere near to restoring his reputation to what it was.”

Judge Jonathan Gibson, who told the court he was sentencing as a revenue evasion case, said it would not be right to suspend the sentence. The judge continued: “The court must clearly send out a message that this kind of behaviour is unacceptable to the public.”