{"id":486727,"date":"2025-10-09T22:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/486727\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T22:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:08:15","slug":"huge-birmingham-fraudster-owned-30-houses-but-told-hmrc-he-was-broke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/486727\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge Birmingham fraudster owned 30 houses but told HMRC he was broke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gurmeet Handa, from Little Aston, laundered more than \u00a35 million in cash<\/p>\n

17:30, 09 Oct 2025Updated 17:32, 09 Oct 2025<\/p>\n

\"GurmeetGurmeet Handa laundered more than \u00a35.3million in cash(Image: WMP)<\/p>\n

A Birmingham man who laundered more than \u00a35.3 million in cash through properties has been jailed.<\/p>\n

Gurmeet Handa was behind the complex web of fraud involving dozens of properties which unravelled after West Midlands Police<\/a> seized \u00a330,000 in notes from an address in Alum Rock in 2016.<\/p>\n

The seizure saw teams from Regional Economic Crime Unit, West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit and HMRC join together in an two-and-a-half year investigation into Handa’s dirty dealings.<\/p>\n

Read More: Robert Jenrick outed as not even being in Handsworth when he took ‘racist’ swipe<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

They identified that Handa had purchased around 30 properties despite declaring little or no income to HMRC.<\/p>\n

He bought these houses using money sourced from a large number of bank accounts, including accounts based outside of the UK.<\/p>\n

Get breaking news on<\/strong> BirminghamLive WhatsApp<\/a>, click the link to join<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eventually, they established that Handa had accrued more than \u00a35.3 milllion and he was charged with money laundering.<\/p>\n

The 52-year old, of Newick Avenue, Little Aston, appeared at Birmingham<\/a> Crown Court on Thursday 2 October after pleading guilty to money laundering.<\/p>\n

Handa was jailed for six years and nine months and ordered to pay back \u00a35.8million- including \u00a3460,000 to HMRC for unpaid taxes.<\/p>\n

Failure to pay will result in him receiving a further 10-year additional sentence and he will also have to sell 28 properties secured by his criminal activity.<\/p>\n

\"AvtarAvtar Nijjer<\/p>\n

Avtar Nijjer, 73, of Uppingham Road, Leicester, was found to be working alongside Handa, depositing cash on his behalf over a year long period.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to a year and three months in prison for money laundering and ordered to pay back \u00a3138,125.<\/p>\n

Failure to do so will result in a year being added onto his sentence.<\/p>\n

Iftikhar Hussain, aged 68, from Birmingham, was also charged with money laundering and received a 12-month community order for his role in moving \u00a329,400 in cash on one occasion.<\/p>\n

Detective Constable Richard Causier, of the Regional Economic Crime Unit, said: \u201cThis was an incredibly vast case that took around two-and-a-half years to investigate before the individuals were charged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt included analysing over 100 bank accounts, reviewing large amounts of digital evidence, using Proceeds of Crime Act powers to execute warrants and restrain property and working with expert witnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank everyone involved in this investigation.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a text book example of how working in partnership can result in uncovering a sophisticated criminal operation like this, which has not only put criminals behind bars for their actions but also removed the benefit they received from such activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

A HMRC spokesperson said: “We are and always will be on the side of the law-abiding majority, working with partners like West Midlands Police to investigate anyone suspected of laundering the proceeds of crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone with information about money laundering or any type of tax fraud can contact HMRC online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gurmeet Handa, from Little Aston, laundered more than \u00a35 million in cash 17:30, 09 Oct 2025Updated 17:32, 09…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,7829,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-486727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-sutton-coldfield","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115346493520542500","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}