Trio Jailed for 11 years for Laundering £3.5million of Criminals' Cash in Burnley

Two men caught trying to hide more than £100,000 in a filing cabinet have been jailed for laundering £3.5m. of criminal cash along with their accomplice.

Builders Javed Ahmad, 44, of Newhall Street, Burnley and Akmal Begum, 40, of Mosley Street, Nelson were found stuffing cash into a drawer when HM Revenue and Customs raided their rented office space in November 2015.


When tax investigators swooped on an office unit in Burnley, Akmal Begum and Javed Ahmad were found stuffing more than £100,000 into a filing cabinet, the town's crown court was told.


They also discovered deposit slips proving the men – along with taxi driver Sajjad Syed, 48, of Bolton – had paid in more than £3.5m. to banks across Leyland, Bolton, Burnley, Accrington, Nelson, Preston and Blackburn.


CCTV caught them making 821 cash deposits between May and November 2015, the court heard.

In one single day, they made 33 different deposit in banks, totalling more than £95,000, according to tax bosses.


All three men were convicted of laundering £3,549,680 in cash between June 17th 2014 and November 17th 2015.


Ahmad, of New Hall Street, Burnley, was found guilty on three charges of money laundering, was jailed for five-and-a-half years.

Syed, of Radcliffe Road, Bolton, was found guilty on two money laundering offences, and was jailed for 30 months.

Begum, of Mosley Street, Nelson, was also found guilty on two money laundering charges and was jailed for three years and nine months.