A GANG of fraudsters scooped more than £4.5m across West Yorkshire.
Now a former financial advisor and two members of his family have been ordered by a judge to hand over more than £½m after he masterminded the West Yorkshire-based mortgage scam.
Batley man Rashid Farid, 33, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 after being convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud arising out his operation of Dewsbury-based Lifestyle Mortgages (Kirklees) Ltd.
The scam, which netted in total £4,571,279.35, involved the altering of Land Registry records via the internet and applications for mortgages and remortgages on properties in Bradford, Wakefield, Leeds and Dewsbury.
Farid, a qualified accountant who acted as a registered mortgage broker, was described at his sentence hearing as the “director and inventor” of the sophisticated scheme.
Yesterday Farid was back at Bradford Crown Court along with his father Mohammed Farid, 55 and his brother 28-year-old Mohammed Jahangir Farid.
Mohammed Jahangir Farid and his father were jailed for four years and two years respectively in 2009 after they were found guilty of money-laundering offences.
The Farid family, who live in Lemans Drive, Batley, were yesterday ordered by Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC to pay back nearly £535,000 following the conclusion of a Proceeds of Crime hearing into their financial affairs.
The largest order was made against Rashid Farid himself who must pay back just over £330,000 or face an additional three-and-half years in jail.
Judge Durham Hall explained that the ruling meant that even if Farid spent the extra time behind bars the debt would still have to be paid following his release.
Mohammed Jahangir Farid must repay a figure of £161,427.19 or face a further two years and three months behind bars while their father Mohammed Farid has to hand over £41,967.02 or risk being locked up again for 15 months.
The Halifax Bank of Scotland lost hundreds of thousands of pounds as a result of the scam and the bulk of the money being repaid will go towards compensating the bank.
Two other men, Abid Ramzan, 33, of Moorside, Daisy Hill, Bradford, and 34-year-old Imran Hussain, of Burley Road, Leeds, also had orders made against them following their roles in the offending.
Ramzan must pay back £221,458.04 or face two years and eight months in jail while Hussain could be locked up again for 15 months if he does not repay just over £40,000.
A sixth man Mohammed Rafiq, of Halifax, was ordered to pay a nominal sum of £1.
Det Chief Insp Lisa Atkinson, who heads the Regional Asset Recovery Team, said: “This case illustrates that we will stop at nothing to recover criminal assets and dismantle criminal activity; especially that which has affected so many innocent people.
“In this case, our continued determination has really paid off as not only have these men been brought to justice but now their assets have been removed.
“This is an excellent example of how far we will go to make sure criminals do not profit from their crimes.”
The investigation, codenamed Operation Princeville, began as a lengthy investigation into fraudsters who were originally linked to mobile phone crime.
