Four men have gone on trial, accused of taking part in a mortgage fraud involving three properties in Keighley.

Aurangzeb Asghar, 31, of Belgrave Road, Keighley; Mushtaq Ahmed, 41, of Devonshire Street, Keighley; his brother Fayaz Ahmed, 31, of Odette Court, Bingley; and Majid Iqbal, 34, of Greenhead Road, Keighley, face a total of 13 charges.

Their trial, before Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, at Bradford Crown Court, began yesterday and is expected to last three weeks.

Prosecutor Timothy Capstick told the jury of six men and six women that the case concerned three properties in the Keighley area, and the alleged fraudulent obtaining of mortgages for those properties.

Mr Capstick said: “We suggest money, that amounts to criminal property, was used to finance the initial purchases of the properties.”

The prosecutor claimed that, for a period spanning six years, Iqbal was laundering money through various bank accounts. Mr Capstick added: “This forms the background to the offences concerning the mortgages in respect of all three properties.

“He was assisted by the other three. Asghar was a friend, and remains so. The Ahmeds were also friends and distant family relations.”

Mr Capstick said that, outwardly, the mortgages were obtained in the names of Asghar and Mushtaq Ahmed. Fayaz Ahmed was involved in a number of the financial transactions that took place on the three properties in Sladen Street, Greenhead Road and Edensor Road.

Mr Capstick told the jury: “You will hear evidence that significant sums of cash were paid into the bank accounts of Aurangzeb Asghar, Majod Iqbal and Mushtaq Ahmed. We suggest they had no, or insufficient, legitimate income that would explain where those significant cash deposits came from.

“The inference is the money must have come from an illegitimate source, and amounts to criminal property.”

The defendants plead not guilty to all charges, which include conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to transfer and convert criminal property, transferring criminal property, converting criminal property, and acquiring criminal property.

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