Mastermind of £7m heist loses appeal
JUDGE SAYS THERE IS ‘NO MITIGATION’ FOR MAN WHO PLANNED THEFT OF 26 BAGS OF CASH FROM HEATHROW
A BID by one of the masterminds behind a £7 million heist at Heathrow to cut his jail term has failed.
The plot saw two security van drivers steal £7 million in cash from the British Airways cargo depot on March 14, 2017.
Rafaqat Hussain, 42, was “at the heart” of a plot which netted the gang 26 bags full of cash. The money was then spirited abroad in an “extraordinarily slick” operation and has never been recovered.
Hussain, of Chadwick Road, Slough, also plotted the burglary and trashing of an 88-year-old woman’s £1 million home in a bid to lower its asking price so he could buy it.
Hussain’s “ruthless” attempt to lower the asking price of the Stoke Poges home earned him two years and eight months for conspiracy to burgle, after police secretly bugged his car and heard him boasting about his criminal enterprises.
He also pleaded guilty to conspir- acies to steal and launder money at Kinsgston Crown Court in October, and was jailed for 10 years and three months.
Hussain appealed the decision at London’s Appeal Court on Thursday May 17, telling Mrs Justice McGowan he was treated too harshly.
The “audacious” heist is one of the UK’s highest value thefts ever.
Months of planning went into the plot, with the two security van drivers being put in place as inside men and provided with untraceable mobile phones.
A getaway van with false registration plates was obtained and immediately crushed at a breakers’ yard after it served its purpose. The stolen money was transferred to Pakistan, and has not been seen since.
Just over a month after the heist, Hussain was picked up by the police’s bug, boasting: “Mate it was the job. I f***ing robbed seven million.”
Hussain’s lawyers argued that he ought to have been given a shorter sentence given his guilty plea, but Mrs Justice McGowan, sitting with two other judges, threw out his appeal.
“It was an audacious conspiracy. Hussain was deeply involved and was a significant organiser who sought to keep his own involvement at a distance,” she said.
The judge also pointed to the sophistication of the plot and “the extraordinarily slick way in which the money was spirited away”.
“There is no mitigation other than his late guilty plea. This is a man with previous convictions, many for dishonesty,” she added.
“The conspiracy to burgle was extremely unpleasant and very well
The conspiracy to burgle was extremely unpleasant and very well organised
organised.
“No complaint can be made about the total sentence imposed for the criminality in this case,” the judge concluded, dismissing the appeal.