Murderer forced to pay £36,000

6:15am Saturday 5th July 2008

Detectives today warned Bradford gangsters that crime does not pay after winning a two-year battle to seize tens of thousands of pounds from a convicted murderer.

Abid Ashiq Hussain was jailed in 2007 for a minimum of 30 years for the gangland execution of father-of-four Shazad Hussain.

When Ashiq was arrested in connection with the slaying of the Bradford restaurant worker, almost £36,000 was seized from his home in Rushton Terrace, Thornbury.

Police claimed the money was the proceeds of crime, but Ashiq insisted it had been legitimately-earned.

But magistrates in Wakefield have now made a confiscation order for the money after Ashiq’s family finally accepted it had come from unlawful means.

Detective Constable Glenn Acornley, of Bradford South CID, said: “At one point in the investigation the men claimed the money was proceeds from family restaurant businesses in Horsforth and Pudsey.

“These claims were subsequently investigated and, by their own admission in court, the money was not from any lawful means.”

Shazad Hussain, 21, was shot dead as he sat in his car in an alleyway off Leeds Road, Bradford, in September 2004. The assassination was said to be revenge for an earlier incident.

Ashiq, Mohammed Niaz Khan and Sharaz Yaqub, all 26 and from Thornbury, Bradford, were given life sentences a year ago after being convicted of Shazad’s murder.

The judge, Mrs Justice Rafferty, said Shazad had died in a cynical, carefully-planned operation and his murderers had thought themselves above the law.

She told them: “Once you decided Shuzzy (Shazad) had crossed the boundary of what was acceptable in the miserable sub-culture you inhabit, you eliminated him.”

The judge said Ashiq, now 27, was the controller, using Khan’s reputation for violence as a tool to make the evil enterprise flow.

The trial heard that gloves and balaclavas used by the gang were taken to the Last Viceroy restaurant in Richardshaw Lane, Pudsey, where they were burned in an oven.

The restaurant, and sister premises in New Road Side, Horsforth, were run by the Ashiq family, who are now believed to have purchased another restaurant in Richardshaw Lane – the India Bar and Grill.

Det Con Acornley said the money had been found at the time of Ashiq’s arrest in the bedrooms of his two brothers, Mohammed Abrar Ashiq and Majid Khan Ashiq, at the family home.

Majid Khan Ashiq, 31, was jailed for five years earlier this year for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in the murder case.

Judge Peter Collier QC, the Recorder of Leeds, said the offence had been designed to undermine the prosecution of very dangerous men and said Ashiq was at the heart of the conspiracy, organising what would be done and bringing in other players.

Det Con Acornley said there was to have been a two-day trial over the money but the brothers had decided not to contest the case and the magistrates granted a confiscation order for £35,910, under the Proceeds of Crime Act, which would now go to public funds.

The officer said: “The family claimed to be pillars of the community.

“They have now accepted the money was the proceeds of dishonesty.

“It is a significant case and is important in the fight against crime. This confiscation order should act as a warning to anyone getting involved in crime that Bradford South Proceeds of Crime Team are actively looking at targets with a view to seizing assets obtained as a result of crime.”

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