{"id":69861,"date":"2025-05-03T01:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T01:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/69861\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T01:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T01:16:09","slug":"birmingham-charity-thief-carried-out-260k-scams-to-keep-up-with-wifes-wealthy-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/69861\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham charity thief carried out \u00a3260k scams to keep up with wife’s wealthy friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abdullah Saqlain, 47, is already in prison for stealing from a charity – but that was the tip of the iceberg\"AbdullahAbdullah Saqlain(Image: West Midlands Police)<\/p>\n

A charity thief carried out more than \u00a3250,000-worth of scams as he tried to keep up with his wife’s wealthy friends.<\/p>\n

Abdullah Saqlain is already serving prison time for stealing more than \u00a351,000<\/a> from the Birmingham-based Jamia Al Furqan organisation.<\/p>\n

But confiscation proceedings revealed that was the tip of the iceberg and exposed more elaborate rackets he was embroiled in between 2018 and 2022.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Couple cleared of killing baby boy by lying on top of him after five years<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The 47-year-old, from Riverdene Road in Ilford, east London, pleaded guilty to two further counts of fraud and three offences of money laundering.<\/p>\n

On Friday, May 2 he was handed a fresh four-year sentence at Birmingham Crown Court<\/a>, which was told he was trying to ‘keep up with the Joneses’.<\/p>\n

Saqlain had offered immigration advice to Jamia Al Furqan but stole money in 2018 after gaining access to its accounts.<\/p>\n

He admitted two counts of theft and two of money laundering, which saw him jailed for three years last September.<\/p>\n

Matthew Brook KC, prosecuting, said: “A POCA (Proceeds of Crime Act) investigation took place.<\/p>\n

“That investigation uncovered frauds for which he awaits sentence today.”<\/p>\n

Saqlain defrauded American Express out of more than \u00a398,000.<\/p>\n

He sent the credit company cheques from a closed NatWest business account knowing they would bounce, only to request refunds to someone else’s Barclays account before American Express realised.<\/p>\n

Saqlain used forged documents to pull off the scam and even embroiled his own wife in the money laundering process by having her transfer large sums to herself.<\/p>\n

In a further fraud he obtained a \u00a350,000 bounce back loan during the Covid-19 pandemic, which he applied for on behalf of a restaurant business.<\/p>\n

But in reality it was a shell company using the address of a flat.<\/p>\n

Next, Saqlain illegally received more than \u00a3102,000 from a Belgium-based logistics company.<\/p>\n

It had been tricked into paying into his bank account by bogus emails purporting to be from a supplier.<\/p>\n

Finally, Saqlain was part of a cynical telephone scam which saw an elderly woman from Leicester swindled out of her \u00a3220,000 life-savings.<\/p>\n

A \u00a310,000 sum of the money was laundered through his account.<\/p>\n

Carl Templar-Vasey, defending, said he had directly asked his client how he became involved in his offending.<\/p>\n

He said: “To be absolutely frank he had a wife who was a medical professional mixing in circles who had more money than him.<\/p>\n

“The lifestyle he was seeking to lead outstripped the income he had.<\/p>\n

“He summed it up. He was trying to keep up with the Joneses. He deeply regrets it.”<\/p>\n

Mr Templar-Vasey added: “He wants to make it clear he apologises and is ashamed of the actions he took part in.<\/p>\n

“He has brought shame not just to him but his immediate and wider family in a close-knit community.”<\/p>\n

The barrister said Saqlain had started repaying the money he defrauded and completed a thinking skills programme at HMP Featherstone in Staffordshire<\/a> where he worked in the library.<\/p>\n

Recorder Martin Reid, passing sentence, told him: “This criminal activity took place over four years.<\/p>\n

“It involved different types of fraudulent activity. The impact these sorts of offences have on individuals, the UK financial system and the taxpayer is significant.<\/p>\n

“The loss to companies from such activity is not necessarily limited to immediate financial loss.<\/p>\n

“It results in a loss of trust between employer and employee and other associated costs.<\/p>\n

“Then there are individuals. (The Leicester victim) lost life savings as a result of the fraud offence.<\/p>\n

“While you are not to be sentenced for that you did play a part in laundering some of the proceeds.”<\/p>\n

He confirmed the four-year sentence started that day and was not consecutive to his previous three-year term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abdullah Saqlain, 47, is already in prison for stealing from a charity – but that was the tip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,10386,748,30,188,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-69861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-crown-court","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114441262595416223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69861","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=69861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}