A DISGRACED Bradford councillor who was jailed for nine years for running a sophisticated visa scam has today been ordered to pay back £1 million under the Proceeds of Crime Act legislation.

It is understood that Khadam Hussain’s available assets include property in this country and Dubai as well as money in bank accounts.

Hussain, who previously represented the City ward in Bradford for the Conservatives, was described by a judge as the “originator and organiser” of the immigration fraud which involved the submission of more than 100 applications supported by a range of fake documentation from solicitors, estate agents and would-be employers.

The prosecution estimated that the conspiracy to defraud Home Office entry clearance officers could have earned Hussain up to £175,000, but Hussain himself claimed he had only gained about £60,000 from his offending.

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Hussain, of Box Tree Close, Girlington, Bradford, his 53-year-old wife Zahida and their three sons Adam Ashraf, 36, Gibran Hussain, 26, and 31-year-old Adnan Hussain were all found guilty of the conspiracy to defraud charge at the end of a trial at the city’s crown court back in November 2014.

A fifth man Numan Shafi, 24, was also convicted of the same offence.

Ashraf, of Northcroft Rise, Girlington, Bradford, was jailed for seven years and the same sentence was imposed on Gibran Hussain, of Box Tree Close, and Shafi, of Hilton Road, Little Horton, Bradford.

Adnan Hussain, also of Hilton Road, was jailed for seven years and three months after he also admitted benefit fraud offences.

Zahida Hussain was sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for two years.

Five of the defendants appeared before Judge David Hatton QC for the proceeds of crime hearing on Tuesday and he made various orders in relation to each of them.

Hussain, who is still serving his jail term, was said to have benefited from criminal conduct to the tune of £1 million and he must meet the confiscation order in the same sum within three months or face a further seven years in jail.

Hussain’s wife was ordered to hand over £19,500 while Adnan and Gibran Hussain, who are also still serving their prison sentences, were made the subject of nominal £1 orders.

Shafi, who is now out of prison, was told he must pay back £2,305.15.

The complex fraud investigation, which involved the collection of about 10,000 pages of documentation, began after complaints from a solicitor about forged documents in her name being used to support visa applications in 2011.

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In September 2012, investigating officers carried out searches at an Islamic wedding venue in City Road, Bradford, known as The Palace and addresses linked to 62-year-old Hussain and the other defendants.

The prosecution had alleged that The Palace had essentially been a front for the family’s principal business which was offering immigration advice and documentation in return for payment.

Although Khadam Hussain was never officially registered as an immigration adviser he was known in the local community as the person to contact for assistance.

The fraud was said to have covered a period between 2006 and 2012 and Khadam Hussain even turned up at four immigration appeal tribunals to give evidence on behalf of applicants whose visas had been refused.

“This conspiracy involved a thoroughly dishonest, cynical and wholesale assault on the integrity of immigration procedures, rules and regulations,” Judge Hatton told the defendants when he sentenced them in 2014.