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December 1st 2006
Former Slough Taxi driver and Benefits fraudster with £3m mansion and luxury lifestyle, has been given five years jail term.
A BENEFITS cheat became a millionaire by masterminding a speed camera scam and milking a council with bogus claims, a judge has been told.
Pakistani-born Nawaz Sharif, who owns a £3million mansion in Islamabad, as well as Mercedes, Toyota and BMW cars and a house in Wexham Road, Slough, was jailed for five years on Friday.
Judge Christopher Critchlow described the 37-year-old as "thoroughly dishonest" and ordered him to repay more than £40,000 to Slough Borough Council.
Sharif was jailed after the judge was told how he charged people up to £300 pounds for bogus names and addresses when they were caught by speed cameras. When his home was searched a mountain of fixed penalty notices were found.
At the same time he was claiming housing benefit from Slough council, without admitting that he owned a £212,000 home in the town and another seven-bedroom mansion in Pakistan.
Ironically, inside the front door of the mansion is a sign proclaiming "God Provides" - a passage from the Koran. The house is in "Villains Row" in the Pakistani capital and valued at £3million
Judge Critchlow heard that former "taxi driver" Sharif made more than £1.5million through benefit fraud and the speeding fine racket. He used his ill-gotten gains to build the sprawling house in Pakistan.
He also splashed out on luxury cars, some of which he shipped to Islamabad, including a £44,000 BMW for his frail mother, who is blind. When police raided his home in Slough they also found fake Home Office Immigration stamps, a false passport and forged immigration documents.
As the father of three began his jail term on Friday last week police continued to probe his finances and suspected other properties, to recover the large sums of money he has handled. Sharif, who changed his name three times in the 1990s, had been operating a scam from his house helping speeding drivers to avoid prosecution.
Prosecutor Neil Moore told Judge Critchlow, sitting at Reading Crown Court, how the defendant would provide fictitious names and addresses to drivers to confound the authorities. He would charge between £100 and £200 per time. "It follows that the defendant was a well-known provider of the illegal facility," said Mr Moore.
He said the scam came to light when police noticed large numbers of forms relating to the same addresses in Slough. "No 67 Lerwick Drive in Slough, received more than 80 nominations," said Mr Moore. "In one particular case it just happened that a fictitious name and date of birth happened to match the name and date of birth of a real person who happened to live not far away from the address of the person given on the form.
"Suspicion fell on him and he had to attend county court and swear that he wasn't the person mentioned. Prosecution was dropped but not before bailiffs had attended his house to claim payment." Officers investigating the racket said they believed it to be the largest case of its kind in the country.
When they raided Sharif's home, in Wexham Road, Slough, on December 1, 2005, they found fake Home Office stamps and the false documents as well as numerous speed camera penalty notices which had yet to be filled in. Peter Jennings, representing Slough Borough Council, told the judge that Sharif had fraudulently claimed £43,823 pounds in housing benefit and council tax benefit.
He added that Sharif, who claimed to run an insurance business from his modest three bedroom house, had numerous bank accounts to fund his lavish lifestyle. "In the 16 months from July 2004 to November 2005 he spent £112,500 pounds on three motor cars," he said.
"In 2003 he spent £4,700 pounds in the United Arab Emirates. He travelled around the world quite a lot." Sharif admitted 21 counts of perverting the course of justice, two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice, and asked for a further 123 offences to be taken into consideration.
He also admitted six charges of false accounting, two of dishonestly failing to notify of a change of circumstances, one charge of having replica Home Office immigration stamps and one charge of having a false document - relating to the passport and the Home Office document.
Sentencing him, Judge Critchlow said: "From January 2002 until your arrest in December 2005, you behaved in a thoroughly dishonest manner. It was a serious amount of crime. "There has been evidence given of your extravagant lifestyle and expensive taste."
The judge ordered the defendant to spend five years behind bars.
He also ordered him to repay £43,823 to Slough Borough Council and pay the prosecution costs of £30,000. A further financial investigation will be reviewed by the court on March 16 next year.
Ian Wheatley, who led the investigation by Slough Borough Council said: "From the council's viewpoint this is obviously a superb result. "Not only has Mr Sharif been punished for his crimes but also the council has recovered the money he illegally obtained from the taxpayers of the borough.
"It is testament to good working relations with the police and our own legal department. It is also testament to the expertise of my team. "We are extremely pleased that the council has been compensated for £30,000."
Police constable Pat Knight of the Thames Valley Roads policing department said: "We are very satisfied with the judge's sentence. It reflects the enormity of the crimes that have been committed. "It sends out a clear message to similar criminals. This was a nationwide fraud. He had customers from all over the country and it was the largest such operation of its kind ever to have been run in the UK."
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