More than half a million pounds of money linked to a bogus car firm has been recovered following a National Crime Agency investigation.
At a High Court civil recovery hearing on 18 December 2020, Mrs. Justice McGowan granted an order on the sum of £526,912.07. which was held in an account registered to a liquidated vehicle company.
NCA investigators established that despite claiming the nature of its business was ‘the sale of used cars and light motor vehicles’,
the company – Niche Cars Limited – never had any stock, nor any legitimate source of income.
Instead, the NCA successfully argued that the Bradford-based firm was set up by lone Director and shareholder Amjid Ali (aka Amjad Rashid), solely as a means of receiving money derived from fraud.
Andy Lewis, Head of Asset Denial in the National Crime Agency said:
“Taking control of funds after civil proceedings might seem like purely a white collar matter, but we believe there are links in this case to violent organised crime groups in West Yorkshire.
“The NCA pursues any available means of recovering illicit wealth, in this case using civil recovery powers to take more than half a million pounds out of the financial system.”
Sarah Pritchard, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) at the NCA, said:
“Tackling illicit wealth is key to disrupting serious and organised crime and reducing its harmful impact in communities. We continue to work tirelessly to identify and recover the proceeds of crime.”
Ali, 40, from Bradford, has a number of criminal convictions. The NCA’s civil recovery investigation was assisted by West Yorkshire Police.