Fugitive linked to £30m fraud ‘living in luxury’
A WANTED fugitive from Birmingham linked to a £30 million mortgage scam is believed to be living in luxury in Pakistan.
A warrant is out for the arrest of Edgbaston’s Nisar Afzal who is believed to be living in Islamabad.
A source in Islamabad said that Afzal is living in luxury in the city – a lifestyle made through ill gotten gains in the UK.
Afzal’s brother Saghir Afzal was jailed in 2011 for 13 years for securing over-inflated mortgages for industrial sites in Aston, Saltley and Oldbury.
But Afzal did not face UK justice and fled to Pakistan where he has remained a wanted man.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Pakistan said Afzal and ‘other accused persons’ are being investigated.
But the NAB confirmed no extradition request had been made by the UK government to bring him back to face trial.
Shafqat Mehmood, additional director International Cooperation Win, at the National Accountability Bureau, said: “It is intimated that investigation against Nisar Afzal and other accused persons is under progress at NAB and no extradition request from UK has been received so far.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “As a matter of long-standing policy and practice, we neither confirm nor deny the existence of extradition requests.”
Last September it was revealed how Afzal had £500,000 worth of jewellery seized from a safe deposit box.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) used new powers to recover gold rings, bracelets and Rolex watches linked to Afzal.
The SFO had conducted a civil recovery investigation into the criminal proceeds of Nisar and Saghir Afzal.
It used listed asset orders to seize the jewellery from a
safe deposit box belonging to Shabana Kausar.
Ms Kausar is the former partner of Nisar Afzal, but is judicially separated from him.
The jewellery seized included several opulent necklaces and bracelets, gold, silver and diamond encrusted Rolex watches, a large diamond ring and a gold ring emblazoned with ‘Nisar.’
The SFO seized the jewellery under the suspicion that it represented proceeds of crime.
The forfeiture order was secured with Ms Kausar’s consent.