Man was caught with cash from criminal proceeds

Police today issued a photograph and appealed for help to trace Mohammed Khalid, 32, who was jailed in his absence for three years yesterday, The cache was largely in £20 notes. An international manhunt has now been mounted for the “money launderer”.

Prosecutor Mark McKone told Bradford Crown Court that Khalid, of Harrogate Terrace, Undercliffe, who had been convicted of two offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act, “remained absent”.

He had been found guilty of being in possession of £100,000 of criminal cash by a trial jury in February 2010.

He was also convicted of a similar offence from January 2007, when he was caught being handed £22,000 at a supermarket car park in Rooley Lane, Bradford, by co-defendant Alan Spencer.

Mr McKone said it was the Crown’s case that Khalid, who went on the run during his trial, was working as a money launderer, rather than being linked to any particular criminal activity.

“His role was as a collector, who would be working for a controller who would almost certainly be based abroad, probably Pakistan in this case,” said Mr McKone, who added that there were also phone links to Belgium.

The prosecutor said the role of Spencer, 50, of Normanby Road, Middlesbrough, was to drive to Bradford to hand over the money on the one occasion.

The Crown could not say how or why Spencer had come by the criminal money.

Mr McKone said Khalid, who had no previous convictions, had claimed the money he was involved with was from an inheritance.

He said the Crown proposed to take civil proceedings in the magistrates court to recover the money from him.

Sentencing Khalid, the judge, Recorder Simon Jackson QC, said: “I am satisfied he absconded to avoid his trial, and isn’t present today.

“His current whereabouts are unknown.”

Spencer, a professional gambler, was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years, with two years supervision and an order to carry out 250 hours’ unpaid community work.

After the case, Acting Detective Inspector Paul Greenwood, of West Yorkshire Police’s economic crime unit, said: “This was a complex investigation during which the two suspects could not explain transactions of large sums of cash.

“Their explanations differed significantly and we liaised with agencies in the UK and Pakistan to uncover the truth.

“We are making it harder for organised criminals to benefit from crime and harm communities.”

Anyone with infromation abiout Khalid’s whereabouts should contact West Yorkshire Police on 0845 6060606 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.