Jailed, banker who turned high-living gangster’s moll
A bAnkER became a gangster’s moll and lived a luxurious lifestyle on the back of a £24,000-amonth drugs empire.
Szenm Asghar, 37, abandoned a career in corporate banking with the Royal bank of Scotland and natWest to run a drugs line with her jobless husband Rashid Hussain, 35.
Police said their ‘illicit enterprise’ flooded the streets of Rochdale with cocaine and heroin. Asghar was jailed for three years and four months at Manchester Crown Court last Friday after pleading guilty to drugs offences. She and Hussain were arrested in December 2021 after a police raid found paraphernalia – including digital scales, packaging and drug debtor lists – in their luxury apartment.
They were caught out as part of a Greater Manchester Police investigation into ‘turf wars’ between rival drugs gangs. Officers seized more than £20,000 in cash, designer clothes worth almost £18,000 and Rolex watches from their marital home. The couple had even paid £3,000 for two cats.
Hussain was heard on voice notes recovered by police bragging about his income.
A phone video showed him clutching giant wads of cash and bragging: ‘This money has made me’ as a friend said: ‘Oh yeah! Alright!’ Inquiries revealed the couple made at least £34,000 in income from their racket over one six-week period.
numerous mobile phones were also seized during the raid. The devices contained ‘marketing’ text messages sent in bulk to their vulnerable customers, promoting their stock.
both Asghar and Hussain
‘Giant wads of cash’
pleaded guilty to possessing criminal property and being concerned in the supply of class A drugs. He was jailed for seven and a half years.
Asghar claimed she had received threats and acted out of ‘misguided loyalty’ to Hussain. but Judge nicholas Dean, kC, told her she knew what kind of man he was.
He said she enjoyed ‘the proceeds of crime’, ‘wanted more’ and relied on selling drugs to maintain her lifestyle, including the designer clothes.