Magistrate denies she used charity cash for job on home

A MAGISTRATE has denied using money from a charitable organisation to pay for railings and gates at her own home.

Salima Hafejee told a jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday she paid in cash for the work outside her house in Highfield Crescent, Bradford, in 2007.

She said her son handed over the 1,000 deposit towards

the cost of the work carried out by Keith Trought and she

later discovered her then lover Tariq Mahmood had paid him for the rest of the job – about 1,300.

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She told the court when she discovered that, she told Mr Mahmood she owed him the money instead, and eventually paid him 1,000 in cash when he said that would suffice.

Hafejee denied asking Mr Trought to make out a false invoice for 1,400 purporting that bars and grilles had been fitted at the headquarters of the Ali Academy in Nessfield Street, Bradford, a charitable organisation in which both she and Mr Mahmood were involved.

She told the jury under cross-examination by Nick Worsley, prosecuting, she did not know why Mr Trought would lie by saying she had asked for the false invoice.

She said it was Mr Mahmood who provided an invoice to her stating work had been done at the offices and, in good faith, believing such work had been carried out, she arranged with the charity's chairwoman, Carmen Morris, to sign a cheque for it.

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An emotional Hafejee said she and her children had been brought up to be honest. "I would never take something which didn't belong to me," she added.

She claimed to the jury that Miss Morris was also not revealing the total truth of what had happened and Mr Mahmood had harassed and pursued her, telling lies against her in a vindictive way after their affair ended.

Hafejee, 44, who was awarded the OBE for services to the community, denies two charges of fraud and one of theft of the 1400.

Bradford born and bred, she told the jury she had an arranged marriage at 16 but said she and her husband made their relationship work for 23 years with him being an excellent provider for their three children.

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He had subsequently met someone else and they had gone through an amicable divorce.

She admitted to the court her affair with Mr Mahmood had begun while she was still married. "We had to be discreet. Only two or three friends knew."

She understood he was separated from his wife and she said she had ended their relationship when she discovered that was not the case.

He did not take the break up well. "I had flowers, letter, he bought a car for me, he bought a house.

"It was just continuous for weeks and weeks."

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She agreed she at one point lied in a letter denying they were having a relationship because, as an Asian woman, she had to protect her reputation within the community.

While she was employed by the Bradford Youth Development Partnership, Mr Mahmood had regularly done youth project work for them.

She maintained it was he who wanted to start the Ali Academy charitable organisation and who had recruited her and Carmen Morris onto the board.

They applied to carry out a several projects and had won a 992 grant for a scheme known as Respect Me Please for which an end-of-project report had to be submitted.

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Mr Worsley claimed she had forged Carmen Morris's signature on that to keep the money in the Academy account although the work had not been done.

Hafejee also told the jury Mr Mahmood had carried out the work and she had based the report on his receipts and documents but could not now provide them because he had cleared them all out of the offices after the allegations were made.

She said she had signed for Carmen Morris because her then friend was too busy to get to the offices.

"She said fill it in for me, I signed it for her on her word.

"Why should it be a crime, I still don't understand," she said.

The trial continues on Monday.

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