A travel agency is continuing to trade after its former owner became the last of 11 people to be jailed for a £500 million money laundering scam.
Bradford Travel Centre boss Shahid Nazir Bhatti was jailed for three years this week after admitting conspiracy to launder proceeds of criminal conduct at Leeds Crown Court. Prosecutors believe more than £42 million was laundered between 1999 and 2001 at the agency.
Revenue and Customs officers uncovered the money laundering ring, centred on the financial activities of three independent agencies, in 2001.
Bhatti is no longer involved in Bradford Travel Centre. The family-run business, which holds an ATOL, is now run by Bhatti’s brother Sohail Bhatti.
The Civil Aviation Authority monitored its ATOL during the investigation. A spokesman said: “The agency was a legitimate business, if [Shahid Nazir Bhatti] was found to be to a director and ATOL holder, that would have had serious implications.”
Also involved were Watan Travel, in Bradford and Birmingham, and Halifax-based Ramzan Travel, both ticketing agencies for Pakistan International Airlines. Both had operated as “bona-fide agencies”, said Revenue and Customs, but are no longer trading.
Using the south Asian Hawala banking system, whereby money can be transferred abroad, the agencies bypassed money laundering regulations and processed millions of pounds of criminally obtained cash into the legitimate banking system.
From 1997 to 2001, couriers collected huge sums of money from UK drug traffickers and dealers and delivered them to premises in Leeds for counting and sorting. HM Revenue and Customs head of investigation for Yorkshire, David Odd, said: “‘Dirty cash’ was being ferried up the M1 daily.
The money was deposited into business and personal accounts at banking outlets, converted into foreign currencies, then transferred to accounts in the US, United Arab Emirates and Europe.”