Jailed ex-Scunthorpe mayor is ‘liar and cheat’ says judge

Jawaid Ishaq, 72, was convicted of a number of offences including fraud and theft earlier this week relating to how he dealt with the financial affairs of a friend who had returned to Yemen.

Sentencing Ishaq at Sheffield Crown Court today, Judge Paul Watson QC described how the defendant had stolen tens of thousands of pounds from Ali Sultan.

Judge Watson said: “You have been convicted of dishonesty on a grand scale.

“You stole tens of thousands of pounds from your one-time friend, Ali Sultan.

“You produced and procured documents to enable you to commit fraud, you lied to the court in the course of proceedings which were brought against you and you sought to dupe the bank and the insurance company by pretending to be Mr Sultan.”

The judge said: “Throughout your trial you maintained the position that he (Mr Sultan) was being cheated and stolen from by his own family.

“It was you all along who was the liar and the cheat.”

The jury heard that Ishaq had been a Labour councillor in Scunthorpe for more than 30 years, had acted as the deputy chair for Humberside Police Authority and had been awarded an MBE.

Today, the judge said: “I acknowledge that you have given much of your life to public service and that you have been highly instrumental in promoting community and race relations in the Scunthorpe area.

“The testimonials which were read in your trial spoke unanimously highly of the esteem in which you were held in your community.”

The jury in the sex-week long trial was told how Mr Sultan, who has since died, moved back to the Yemen but had various affairs in Scunthorpe that needed looking after, which included two properties in the town.

He signed a document granting power of attorney over the two houses to Ishaq but the defendant used this power to syphon cash to himself.

Judge Watson said: “I have no doubt at all that you were treating Sultan’s properties as your own portfolio and that whatever was spent on the properties was not spent so as to enhance the pension of Sultan but to provide an income for you.”

Ishaq was convicted of nine offences, including three counts of fraud, three of theft and one of perverting the course of justice.