Estate agents go on trial in money laundering case

Two estate agents have gone on trial accused of laundering hundreds of thousands of pounds for an international crime gang.

The two men, plus a third, denied entering into a money laundering arrangement.

Nasrullah Khan, of Khan Properties in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, is alleged to have co-ordinated the transfer of criminal profits into third-party bank accounts.

Manchester Crown Court heard that holdalls stuffed with cash were regularly collected by Khan’s office manager, Fazal Hussain, before being taken to Manchester banks by Khan’s son, Haseef Ullah Khan.

Mark Connor, prosecuting, told the jury that the laundering was carried out at the bidding of an unidentified ‘controller’.

When Khan Properties was raided on July 15, 2008, after a surveillance operation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency, two holdalls full of cash were found, along with bundles of notes. In total, £355,000 was recovered.

Minutes earlier, Fazal Hussain had been seen collecting two holdalls from near the office, one from an unidentified male and one from a man called Mark Owens, described as the go-between with an ‘organised crime group’.

Shredded documents were recovered from the premises and pieced back together. The court heard these were found to be paying-in slips at various banks in Manchester over the three-week period before the raid.

Connor said of the defendants: “They were, it’s alleged, tasked by at least one organised criminal group to place the proceeds of crime into the financial system. They were one cog, but a very important cog, in a large operation controlled from overseas.”

Nasrullah Khan, 51, Haseef Ullah Khan, 28, both of Dane Road, Sale, and Fazal Hussain, 46, of Woodlands Street, Cheetham Hill, deny entering into a money laundering arrangement. Mark Owens, 28, of Langley Beck, Widnes, Cheshire, admitted the charge.

Khan Properties, which remains in business, describes itself on its website as a successful family business that has been operating for over 20 years, having been founded in the 1980s by Mr Khan. It says it has grown to provide customers with other key services, such as money transfer and travel agency. It also has property interests in Dubai.

Nasrullah Khan is described on the website as “a very honest and reliable man”. 

Mr Hussain is described as a long-term member of staff.

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