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SOMETIMES, justice takes a long time to catch up with an offender, but it does so in the end. Last Wednesday, four fraudsters were sentenced after their conviction at Southwark Crown Court in London for their part in a property investment scam that raked in more than £13 million from more than 800 investors.

Essex and London Properties Limited told investors their money would buy houses on the route of the Crossrail scheme, which would spark a rise in their value. Meanwhile, the company would pay investors a fixed eight per cent a year. In fact, the crooks bought just one property, a house in Harwich priced at £147,000. Investigators from Essex Police found the four personally pocketed almost £1.5 million between 2015 when the scam began and 2018 when it collapsed.

Ringleaders Mohammad Tanveer and Florian Pierini were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, and Mohommed Hussain to four and a half years.

Jeffrey Razaq, 61, from Lowestoft, was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for 12 months, and 200 hours of unpaid work, after being convicted of conspiracy and money laundering. Prosecutors told the court Razaq received over £110,000 ‘for which no legitimate explanation was provided’.

I warned in 2013 that Razaq, a financial adviser, was the sole director of MH Carbon Limited, a major scam investment company that took in more than £18million from victims who believed claims that trading in carbon credits was hugely profitable.

His penalty for this was a 14year ban on acting as a company director, a ban that ends in 2029, but which clearly did not stop him from making more money from more victims.