Tens of thousands of pounds in illegal assets are being put to good use by police in Bradford.

In the last month, six confiscation orders have been granted to strip convicted criminals of their ill-gotten gains.

They include Naheem Malik, 27, of Moorside Lane, Laisterdyke, who, earlier this month, was given six months by a Bradford Crown Court judge to pay back assets of almost £37,000.

The order followed a five-year sentence for theft and fraud in relation to the theft of £680,000 of steroids from a pharmacy where he worked as a driver.

A confiscation order also granted in March saw 39-year-old Ashfaq Sheikh, of Nuttall Road, Barkerend, ordered to pay £10,000 within six months.

He pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering in relation to the theft of mobile phone top-up cards from a service station where he worked as a cashier.

Ziarat Mahmood, 37, of Hampden Street, Little Horton, was ordered to pay £72,340 following a conviction for fraud.

And Michael Gledhill, 40, of Geraldton Avenue, Bolton, Bradford, was convicted of possession with intent to supply class B drugs and ordered to pay £4,372.

The money seized will be spent on community projects in the force’s Bradford South division.

Detective Sergeant Simon Pridgeon, of the Bradford South Proceeds of Crime Team, said: “Taking away a criminal’s ‘ill-gotten gains’ sends a clear message that crime does not pay and it shows that procedures are in place to prevent criminals benefiting from their activity.”

  • Read the full story in Friday's T&A