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UK: Kurds On Benefits Ran Ł25M Racket
9.2.2010
By John Twomey |
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February
9, 2010
LONDON,— A
GANG of asylum seekers ran a Ł25million money
laundering racket while claiming thousands of pounds
in benefits.
They were handling up to Ł4million a month in cash –
the proceeds of illegal drugs – while pocketing
state handouts.
The 10-strong gang of Iraqi Kurds used foreign
exchange bureaux to change the cash into 500 euro
notes which were smuggled out of the UK.
Customs officers uncovered the laundering scam and
set up a secret surveillance operation to record
their activities.
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A gang of Kurdish asylum seekers ran a Ł25million
money laundering racket while claiming in benefits |
They were filmed handing
over vast amounts of money in holdalls and suitcases
on London streets. It was only after the gang was
rounded up in 2007 that the full extent of the
benefits fiddle was revealed.
The racket was set up by Hasiv Rashi, 70, who
claimed housing benefit and pension credits. He
handed control to son Ali Mohamed Rawand, 36, who
got job seeker’s allowance.
Yesterday, at Guildford Crown Court, Hasiv, of
Paddington, west London, was jailed for a year and
his henchman Anwar Hardi, 36, of Acton,www.ekurd.netgot
three years after being convicted under the Proceeds
of Crime Act.
Rawand was sentenced to six years at an earlier
hearing. The other Iraqis got between five years and
six months in jail.
Nine of them have been given leave to stay in the UK
and cannot be deported for fear they will be badly
treated in Iraq.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
Express co.uk
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