Man jailed for scam after franking marks washed off
Pair funded luxury life from £250k stamp fraud Gang passed child rape victim around like a ‘piece of meat’
ABUSINESSMAN who ran a £250,000 fraud involving used stamps being washed and sold on as if new has been jailed for four years.
Paul Harrison and his wife Samantha supplemented their incomes out of the illegal enterprise and used the proceeds to go on holiday, to buy a BMW and also a personalised number plate.
Harrison, 52, of Lancar Court, Barnsley, was jailed for four years at Birmingham Crown Court after he was previously convicted of adapting, supplying and possessing articles for fraud.
He had admitted money laundering and another charge of supplying articles for fraud.
His wife, 44, of the same address, was convicted of money laundering. She was sentenced to two years, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work.
Graham Rought, of St Giles Road, Tile Cross, Birmingham, had previously admitted adapting, supplying and possessing articles for fraud and money laundering.
The former dental technician was handed an 18-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to do 85 hours unpaid work.
A JURY has convicted four men from Telford who abused a vulnerable young girl after she was “passed around like a piece of meat”, sold for sex and raped.
The victim told how she was forced to perform sex acts in a churchyard, raped above a shop on a filthy mattress, and violently abused when she tried to refuse their advances.
In all, five men went on trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
The offences are alleged to have taken place in the Telford area of the West Midlands some time between 2000 and 2003, and started when the girl, now an adult, was just 12.
The victim said she was assaulted by other as-yet unidentified males, with the abuse continuing until she was in her mid-teens, the jury heard.
Recorder Naomi Ellenbogen QC told Paul Harrison: “It is clear to me this was a calculated business activity, the proceeds of which were your prime income.
“The fraud took place over a period of just short of nine years. You made considerable gain from these offences.”
Ben Close, prosecuting, said: “This offence involves the obtaining and selling of large quantities of stamps which had already been through the postage system.
“They bought second hand stamps, removed from envelopes, and sold them on so they could be reused.
“Paul Harrison accepts he put them on grease proof paper to make them appear as if new.
“Rought was involved in washing off the franking marks.”
He said Rought had been involved in the fraud for twoand-a-half years and that Paul Harrison had operated an account called Affordable
Stamps, which
Opening the trial, Michelle Heeley QC had said: “This case involves the sexual exploitation of a young girl, a girl passed around like a piece of meat for the sexual gratification of several young men, some of whom are in the dock. Each of these defendants deny that they in any way abused anyone. The prosecution say, having heard the evidence, you can be sure they did.”
Jurors were told that the vulnerable victim was sold for sex, first by a man named Tanveer Ahmed, who had “befriended her” during a low point in her life.
Ahmed, who did takeaway deliveries at Perfect Pizza in the town, was not on trial alongside the other defendants, having been deported to Pakistan for “unrelated offences”, the had run since June 2007. Stamps were bought by Harrison in kiloware and had traded on Amazon and eBay.
Harrison, in his contact with others, made efforts to avoid details being recorded on invoices.
An investigation was started, he said, when on February 19, 2015, a large quantity of envelopes were rejected at a sorting office in Glasgow.
Tests showed there were no signs of phosphor on the stamps, which were mainly addressed to schools in Scotland, and they were then traced back to the Harrisons.
He said when their court heard. Jurors did not hear how Ahmed, then 40 and formerly of Urban Gardens, in Wellington, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting a charge of controlling a child prostitute as part of a series of court cases that ended in 2013.
He was one of seven men jailed after an investigation into a child prostitution ring in Telford, as part of West Mercia Police’s Operation Chalice inquiry.
Later, the victim came into contact with the first defendant, Mohammed Ali Sultan, 33, formerly of Telford, whom she said also sold her for sex, raped and abused her.
He already had convictions in both 2012 and 2015 for “similar offences against young girls”.
Ali Sultan was also among
the home was searched evidence found of the process going on.
Mr Close said stamps were being sorted, there were towels to dry them and that stamps and stamp-related products were found all over the address.
He said Harrison had contacted Rought on a number of occasions asking him about the method he used to wash the stamps.
“There were some flirtatious exchanges between them because Rought thought he was speaking to Samantha Harrison,” Mr Close said.
The court heard Paul Harrison had been involved in the sale of around 700,000 stamps which had resulted in loss to Royal Mail of £421,000.
was seven men originally convicted following the Chalice investigation into the abuse and prostitution of children in Telford.
The victim told police that, years after the abuse ended, she recognised photos of Ali Sultan and Ahmed from press reports on the Telford sex ring.
Asked why she did not tell anyone about exactly what happened until years later, she replied: “I think I had just had enough, I kept it to myself for all these years.”
On Tuesday, Sultan was unanimously convicted of rape and three counts of indecent assault.
Jurors were directed to find him not guilty of another rape charge after the defence presented evidence he was in Pakistan at the time the
Just over £215,000 had gone into an account held by the Harrisons while Rought’s benefit had amounted to around £43,000 and he had caused a loss to the Royal Mail of £113,000.
James Bruce, for Rought, said it was not a sophisticated endeavour and that he had carried out the washing process in his garden shed.
Vanessa Saxton, for Paul Harrison, said he had worked since leaving school, held a responsible position and that in middle life he would have to start all over again.
Katie Rafter, for Samantha Harrison, said she had “turned a blind eye to her husband’s activities” but must have had suspicions about them. alleged offence took place. Codefendant Mohammad Rizwan, 37, of Mafeking Road, Telford, was also convicted of two counts of indecent assault.
On Wednesday, the jury also found co-accused Shafiq Younas, 35, of Regent Street, Wellington, near Telford, guilty of indecently assaulting the victim in a churchyard.
Amjad Hussain, 38, of Acacia Drive, Leegomery, Telford – unanimously convicted of a single count of indecent assault on Tuesday – was cleared by jurors, on Wednesday, of another similar offence.
Jurors also cleared Nazam Akhtar, 35, of Victoria Avenue, Wellington, of raping the girl in the back of a car.
The men will be sentenced today (December 19).