The £300m tycoon on a tag allowed to f lee UK ... without a passport
A JUDGE hit out at UK border controls after hearing how a tycoon suspected of masterminding Britain’s biggest ever banking fraud fled to Pakistan – despite having no passport and wearing an electronic tag.
Bentley- driving multi-millionaire Shaid Luqman, 48, flew out of Manchester Airport in 2011 – with millions of pounds in stolen cash – after he left a trail of debt over the collapse of his £300million business empire.
Although his British and Pakistani passports were confiscated and he was then hauled into court for fraudulently attempting to get another one, Luqman – known as ‘Lucky’ – sneaked past airport security staff just two weeks after being tagged.
Despite a warrant being issued for his arrest over the alleged fraud, Luqman remains on the run six years on and is apparently thriving back in Pakistan.
Posing as a respectable businessman, he has opened a shopping mall in Lahore, started his own fashion boutique and appeared in media photo shoots. This week at a review hearing over the outstanding arrest war- rant at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, Judge Angela Nield said: ‘I must say I am quite surprised that he was able to leave the country with hundreds of millions of pounds and a curfew tag. With the security at airports, my other half doesn’t seem to be able to go anywhere without being searched.’
Luqman built his property empire after buying his first house when he was a student studying finance at Manchester University. By the time he graduated in 1991 he owned 24 houses which he rented out to other students.
After working in a bank, Luqman formed his firm Lexi Holdings in 2000 which provided bridging finance. In 2004 Luqman was named ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ by Ernst and Young. His property and finance empire financed by bank loans was worth £300million and his £250million personal wealth put him 238th on The Sunday Times Rich List. In 2005, Luqman boasted: ‘Overall, we are a billion-pound company. In ten or 20 years, I want us to be as big as a high street bank.’
But in 2006 his property leasing company went into administration with debts of £100million amid allegations of dishonesty. He was banned from running a company for 15 years, and had his business assets seized.
He was then jailed for two years in 2007 for contempt of court and found liable for more than £100million in funds allegedly misappropriated from his collapsed business empire.
In 2009 he was jailed for another year for contempt. Then in 2011 Luqman was arrested for a third time after he tried to apply for a new passport despite court orders banning him from applying for one. But he was spared jail for passport fraud after claiming he suffered from ‘panic attacks’. Instead, he was given a suspended jail term and ordered to wear an electronic tag for three months. He fled the UK on June 10 that year. The Serious Fraud Office issued a warrant for his arrest. Prosecutor Ian Metcalfe said it should remain in place. Judge Nield adjourned the case for six months to ‘see if there has been any progress made’.
Luqman’s younger brother, Waheed, is also said to be in Pakistan and is also wanted by police in the UK having been jailed for fraud in his absence.
Investigators fear £104million was siphoned out of the firm to family in Pakistan. Shaid was described as the ‘prime mover’ in the scam, aided by Waheed in what was a ‘family fraud’.
Last night the Home Office said it was the police’s responsibility to alert airport authorities of the potential departure of any known criminal. It said that border officials do not routinely conduct ‘physical’ checks of people leaving the country except in the enforcement of customs and immigration laws.
‘Want to be big as a high street bank’