WIREDGOV

Adeel Mirza, a 45-year-old financial adviser who pleaded guilty to 10 counts of fraud and deception in 2013, has been ordered to pay £4,180,788.32. The confiscation order must be paid within 12 months, otherwise a 6 year default sentence will be imposed. 

Mirza made widespread use of fraudulent documents to assist him in arranging fraudulent mortgages for his clients, who included heroin dealer Riaz Mohammed and a corrupt solicitor. The financial investigation uncovered a tangled web of complex multi million pound financial transactions involving fraudulent mortgages, bank accounts and properties being held in the names of unsuspecting members of Mirza’s family, including one property purchased in the name of a deceased individual. The investigation also identified offshore bank accounts held in Switzerland and Jersey, and an offshore company based in Jersey that owned 15 rental properties. Mirza was sentenced to six years in 2013 and made subject to a Financial Reporting Order.

On the 24th September 2015, the confiscation hearing at Southwark Crown Court found that Mirza’s benefit from criminal conduct was £8,298,476.31, with the realizable amount in assets being £4,180,788.32. The assets include the luxury family home in Wanstead, Bentley Continental and Range Rover motor vehicles, watches and jewelry, 14 other rental properties in London, and cash held in UK and offshore bank accounts.