Pakistani sues Scotland Yard for seizing £600,000 in money laundering case

British Pakistani Ahsan Javaid has sued Scotland Yard to recover his nearly £600,000 confiscated by the police from him after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) failed to prove its £34 million money laundering case against him.

At the heart of Ahsan Javaid’s case against the London Police are his four laptops which the Scotland Yard officers seized during raids in November 2017 and returned after nearly four years.

According to media reports, Ahsan Javaid alleges his laptops were manipulated, tampered with, passwords changed and key evidence to support his rightful ownership of the seized cash was destroyed, following his acquittal in the criminal case.

Ahsan Javaid, his wife Amna Gulzar and two others were first arrested in November 2017 but charged in May 2018 with conspiring to launder £34 million between 2012 and 2018, mainly to Pakistan, with false identities by setting sham companies and accounts.

They were accused of stashing away cash in 43 bank accounts before transferring the money from the UK to Pakistan and other countries but the trial collapsed amid failures by the police and prosecution.

However the police didn’t return the seized/frozen cash of Javaid – estimated at £600,000 – at the time of his acquittal in October 2021. Now the British Pakistani has taken the police to the court over discrimination, unfairness and wrongful acts.

“Catastrophic failure has come about because the investigation exponentially grew in size without sufficient manpower, resources, training or expertise being allocated to it,” the judge had said.

Ahsan Javaid and his family celebrated the collapse of the trial and failure of the prosecution to get a criminal conviction against them but Javaid’s dilemma didn’t end there as the police announced that his money will remain frozen and forfeited as a recoverable money under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) which gives the police power to seize monies without formal charges, on ground of suspicions that the seized money is a recoverable property or intended for use in unlawful conduct.

In a statement Ahsan Javaid said: “Nearly two months into the live trial, it was clear the CPS was clueless and fishing; it wanted to stretch the case to somehow secure more time and get some evidence but the judge could see the CPS has no case and decided that the CPS can’t be given more time and, therefore, ended the trial.”

Ahsan Javaid said the police returned laptops to him nearly four years after the trial had ended but “the passwords were changed or they manipulated on all machines”. The laptops are not working now.

Ahsan Javaid complained that he was a victim of the police. “I remained in the police custody for over 27 months without committing any crime. The police tried to complicate things as much as it could but in the end the truth prevailed and we won. I am sure we will win the civil proceedings case too. My case is against the police’s POCA powers.

The Metropolitan Police said: “An issue was raised about the return of laptops seized during the criminal investigation. We dispute any allegations that the passwords to these laptops were changed or the laptops unlawfully tampered with in any way.”