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Call centre worker's £3m supplying heroin
A SHEFFIELD insurance company worker made more than £3 million from the wholesale supply of heroin to dealers across England, a judge has ruled.
Shoukat Yaqoob, 27, of Earl Marshal Road, Fir Vale, Sheffield, organised the delivery of 50 kilos of pure heroin in a nine month period.
Yaqoob was working at a Norwich Union insurance company call centre and used its phone line to mastermind the multi-million pound enterprise – sending out drug couriers to the Midlands, West Country and North of England.
He was arrested two years ago and was jailed for 11 years at Sheffield Crown Court.
He was back before the court for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.
Judge Mark Horton, sitting at Gloucester Crown Court, certified Yaqoob's criminal profit to be a massive 3,115,096.20.
The judge also ruled Yaqoob has assets of 97,740.55 which he must forfeit within six months or serve an extra two years in prison.
Yaqoob did not dispute the 3 million figure and accepted he had assets of 90,740.55 – but he disputed the balance of 7,000 claimed by the prosecution.
He said he had never had the 3,000 received from the sale of his car by his father after he was arrested - nor 4,000 which had been withdrawn from his bank account by his wife while he was in custody.
Yaqoob told the judge he had bought a VW Bora shortly before his arrest with money which a cousin had given him to repay a loan.
After his arrest the car was searched by the police but then handed back to his family and his father later sold it and used the money to pay the mortgage on his house, he said.
He told the court that 4,000 he had in a joint bank account with his wife was withdrawn to pay bills and to fund her trip to Pakistan for a wedding.
Yaqoob had no say in the use of the money and it was no longer available to help him meet a confiscation order, he said.
But after hearing evidence from Yaqoob Judge Horton said he did not accept his story and he ordered the 7,000 must be forfeited.
When Yaqoob was sentenced in November 2007 the prosecution said he was running a drug supply chain from South Yorkshire out into the Midlands and South West.
Police in Gloucestershire cracked the operation in July 2007 when they swooped on a Gloucester-based dealer who was receiving heroin from Yaqoob.
When Yaqoob was arrested he was found to have 60,000 in cash in his loft.
The money was seized and is part of the 97,000 he was ordered to forfeit under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
When Yaqoob was jailed 20 months ago Judge Jamie Tabor QC said: "You were at the heart of a conspiracy to provide heroin throughout Yorkshire and eventually in Gloucester. It was only thanks to the vigilance and skill of Gloucestershire police that your work was uncovered."
The Proceeds of Crime hearing was told Yaqoob's home in Sheffield would have to be sold to meet the confiscation order.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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