I went cold... my kids had been at risk
MOTHER-OF-TWO Tanvir Mukhtar went cold when she received the call from police. The private tutor employed to help her children’s English and maths studies had been arrested, the officer said. Mohamed Qabri Anis, she learned, was accused of raping one of his pupils – a child under the age of 13. Mrs Mukhtar was shocked to find the ‘very professional’ man she had let into her £1.2million home every week was a paedophile. A traumatic conversation followed with her two children – then aged seven and nine – but thankfully they were not affected. But she has warned other parents who, similar to her, may been convinced by a recommendation, to be vigilant when looking for tutors. The shocking incident in 2013 has seen Mrs Mukhtar give up her lucrative career in investment banking and set up her own tuition company Scholar Hub.
And she has called on the Government to make background checks compulsory – a ‘no-brainer’, she says. Mrs Mukhtar, 46, said: ‘If I can get here, someone who hasn’t had the same opportunities will be really, really vulnerable.’
Having been recommended by a friend, Anis had not appeared ‘nefarious in any way’ during the weekly sessions at her home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.
Anis – aged 41 at the time – pleaded guilty to two counts of rape of a boy under the age of 13 in 2013. He was sentenced to life in jail at Reading Crown Court.
Mrs Mukhtar added: ‘Every parent I’ve told about this loophole cannot believe it’s not a legal requirement to have a DBS [criminal record check].’