An imprisoned tax evader, who hid his wealth in the United Kingdom while building a Buckingham Palace inspired estate in Pakistan, has been ordered to pay back £2.2million within six months or face 10 more years in prison.
Mohammed Suleman Khan was sent to prison for four years in April 2014 for dodging paying tax and national insurance for nine years and used the proceeds to construct the property.
The 43-year-old’s scam was exposed after police raided his Birmingham home and discovered plans for his mansion in Attock in Punjab, complete with a library, cinema and servant quarters.
Furthermore, the police found no evidence of a legitimate debt collecting company and investigation proved he had netted more than £1million during that period, without paying the required tax and insurance amount.
Last week, Suleman was ordered by Liverpool Crown Court to pay £2.2 million within six months. Upon failing to hand the cash, the 43-year-old would face a further 10 years in prison.
The original tax fraud court case heard how he had lived in a gated £500,000 house in Moseley, a suburb of Birmingham and drove a BMW, but had no obvious job.
Small amounts of money went through his bank accounts and though he was careful to avoid showing trappings of wealth in the UK, detectives from West Midlands Police’s Force CID discovered he had secretly paid for the £2.2million mansion to be built in Pakistan.
The news of his arrest sent “shockwaves around Birmingham’s criminal fraternity,” according to a source.
“In recent years, he was said to have turned religious but this man was still feared and his dealings and movements were shrouded in mystery,” a source said.
“Not many people had even ever set eyes on him. He had this kind of mythical status where people only spoke his name in hushed tones. Most people referred to him simply as ‘The General’ which gave an indication of the kind of status he had in the community,” the source added.
Reading out the sentence, the judge regarding Suleman’s residence in Attock said, “It is enormous … with dozens of rooms, a library, servant quarter, cinema, underground parking and guard rooms. It is the size of Buckingham Palace.”