Religious teacher jailed over £1.7m run of mortgage frauds

A RELIGIOUS teacher who dishonestly obtained £1.7m in mortgage loans using numerous aliases has been jailed for five years eight months.

Over a five-year period Syed Shah only paid £24.60 income tax while claiming benefits, but managed to amass a portfolio of 10 properties, several due to his fraudulent conduct, Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

Through his activities, mortgage lenders had lost around £450,000 while it was estimated Shah, described as a Islamic teacher and community leader, benefited by around £391,000.

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Shah, 45, a father of six, of Barkerend Road, in Bradford, admitted three charges of fraud and seven of money transfer by deception.

Financial advisor Mahboob Abbas, 53, of Grove Road, Shipley, who admitted one charge of fraud was given 40 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months with 192 hours unpaid work.

Jailing Shah, the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC said his was a sophisticated fraud. “You persisted in a course of conduct over several years.

“It involved considerable planning in advance when you created bogus identities investing these people with bank accounts in which you put money sometimes many months in advance of when you were going to use those identities.”

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“It was calculated to cause significant loss to financial institutions who you had persuaded to loan you monies by gross deceptions and the creation of bogus identities.

“I accept some were real people but they were not in this country, they were far away in Pakistan.”

Mr Sharp said Shah had gone to some lengths to establish false employers references.

He repeatedly quoted to them that he worked for the Muslim Educational Centre at Boundary Farm Road, Leeds.

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This was a genuine property leased from Leeds City Council at a low rent but one which the Crown would argue was a facade for Shah’s dishonesty since it was, in fact, derelict with no services having been supplied to it for years.

In 2002 he claimed he was earning in excess of £34,800 at the centre to get a mortgage on a house in Richmond Avenue, Leeds, the fourth property in his portfolio. He sold it in 2005 with a net profit of £73,573.

In 2003, Shah bought a former council-owned house in Sugarwell Mount, Leeds, with a right-to-buy discount in his own name after again claiming he had a £35,000 salary. He sold it 18 months later to himself using another name, for a grossly inflated price, obtaining a different mortgage and claiming that man earned £100,000 at the centre. After the original loan was repaid Syed pocketed £159,600 in cash.

He later raised another loan on the property for an extension, before remortgaging the house using another false identity, failing to making payments on that loan and allowing it to be repossessed, only to buy it back in yet another name at the much reduced price.

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Mr Sharp said he used similar identities to get loans on another property at Becketts Park Drive, Leeds, which was also remortgaged and repossessed. Abbas wrote out a fraudulent reference in one case.

Ricky Holland, for Shah, said he continued to do Islamic teaching when the genuine centre could not be kept up and felt shame at the loss of his good name. The money he received was used on other properties.