(Image: West Yorkshire Police)
A court has heard how the wife of a convicted drug dealer set up a false £100,000 mortgage using cash from drug supply.
Prosecutor James Holding told Bradford Crown Court how Sidrah Rehman, 39, engaged former mortgage broker Reece Nadir to handle the arrangements for 39 Charnwood Road in Undercliffe, which, when raided by police, was found to house a cannabis farm with 586 plants.
A Vietnamese man was tending to the plants.
Prosecutor James Holding said the raid followed Encrochat investigations into Rehman’s then-husband Azad Yaqub and his links to Class A drug supply.
When officers raided the couple’s home at 41 Charnwood Road they found around £25,000 in an upstairs bedroom that appeared to be a children’s nursery as well as several mobile phones, one of which belonged to Rehman.
The amounts were described as "vast": 38.5kg of heroin and 4kg of cocaine.
Following the raids at 39 and 41 Charnwood Road, four bank accounts belonging to Rehman were analysed and showed that large amounts of money had been sent to them with references to "gift", which the court heard was "an attempt to make them appear genuine".
The total amount of money deposited across those four bank accounts – with the source of the funds described as "unexplained" – was £238,794.33.
Mr Holding said: "In summary, Miss Rehman was ‘washing’ the proceeds of Mr Yaqub’s drug dealing.
"Miss Rehman would approach friends and family members and ask them to transfer her money to her accounts.
"In return, she would give them physical cash from Mr Yaqub’s drug enterprise."
Messages on Rehman’s phone showed that she had used former mortgage broker Reece Nadir to secure a mortgage for number 39, and that Nadir acted as the "middleman" in describing a scheme in which she would pay money to an unnamed broker who would then return the money via bank transfer via a property company.
The court heard that Nadir, 48, of St Martin’s Avenue, Leeds, knew that the cash was not legitimate and facilitated its conversion to "legitimate" wages.
When interviewed by police Rehman said her marriage to Yaqub had been arranged after he had served an earlier nine-year prison sentence.
She said she owned number 39 but that it was rented out.
Mr Holding said: "She denied any knowledge of the cannabis farm being run in her own property next door to where she was living."
She also denied any knowledge of the £25,000 discovered in the nursery room of her home during the police raid.
She later admitted paying cash to friends and family members in return for bank transfers into her account to provide a legitimate financial trail for her mortgage application.
And she confirmed that the cash she gave to those people was from Yaqub.
She denied any knowledge of Yaqub’s criminal activity.
She admitted that Nadir had helped her in converting physical money into "legitimate" wages, for which he received £1,500.
She admitted that had been fraudulent.
Nadir admitted acting as a middleman but denied receiving any benefit.
The court heard that it was "inconceivable" that Rehman did not know about Yaqub’s nine-year sentence or had never asked about it and must have known that the next-door property to her home was being used as a cannabis farm.
Rehman, who was of previous good character, pleaded guilty to an offence of conceal / disguise / convert / transfer / remove criminal property between 15 December 2021, and 23 December 2023.
Nadir pleaded guilty to the same charge between 11 February 2022, and 14 June 2022.
The court heard that he had five previous convictions for 11 offences including conspiracy to defraud, converting criminal property, and possessing articles for use in fraud for which he received 62 months’ imprisonment.
Mitigating for both Rehman, a mother-of-three, and Nadir, barrister Simon Hustler said there had been an element of coercion and exploitation on behalf of her husband.
He said since being released from prison Nadir had brought up his children alone and had seen one go to university and another achieve high grades at A-level.
Sentencing the pair, Mr Recorder David Brooke told Rehman: "This is a case which really derives from the drug-dealing of your husband.
"He was a very significant drug dealer.
"Your role in this seems to have been in the past to have assisted him in terms of the money laundering, because the cash proceeds of that drug-dealing had to go somewhere.
"Part of it – £238,794 – went through your accounts from sources that cannot be verified.
"Reece Nadir assisted you in what you needed to do in terms of converting this money into wage slips so that a false mortgage could be obtained.
"It looked as if it would be legitimate.
"Both of you find yourselves here in a lot of trouble."
Recorder Brooke sentenced Rehman to 30 months’ imprisonment suspended for three years, ordered her to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and to undertake 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
She will face a Proceeds of Crime hearing at a later date.
Nadir was handed 20 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.