Mohammed Suleman Khan, an infamous Birmingham tax fraudster who built a ‘palace’ in Pakistan, has been freed from jail – despite still owing £3 million in crime proceeds and interest. Khan is understood to be still living in the same £700,000 gated house in Moseley he lived in when he was jailed. He was originally sentenced to four years in 2014 after defrauding the taxman of £450,000.
The scam was exposed after police raided his Moseley home and found plans for his own ‘Buckingham Palace’ in Pakistan, complete with library, cinema and servant quarters.
In 2016 Khan’s sentence was increased by ten years when he failed to pay a £2,209,090 confiscation order.
Fraudster Mohammed Suleman Khan, 42, lived luxury life in Birmingham despite no obvious income http://t.co/gpU8PDY3Z4
— Gary Young (@gd_yng) April 11, 2014
Five years later he is now a free man again, having been released after serving half his default sentence. He still has not paid a penny of the £2.2 million order – nor the additional £1 m interest – owed to the State.
It is believed Khan is still living in the Moseley house which belongs to relatives. The property is subject to a financial restraint order which was obtained by the CPS, according to Land Registry records.
In non payment cases eight per cent interest is added annually to the original sum meaning Khan now owes another £1m on top, taking the total outstanding to £3,221,034.
Revealed: The £2m Pakistan 'palace' built by city fraudster Mohammed Suleman Khan https://t.co/PqjuNCYg5z
— Birmingham Live (@birmingham_live) March 5, 2018
West Midlands Police said in a statement: “POCA (Proceeds of Crime Act) Asset Recovery is often extremely complex and time consuming. Our progress to date has been slower than we would like in this case.
“It is the obligation of Mr Khan to pay the confiscation order and remains so, despite having served the default sentence.
His family home belonged to relatives and only small amounts of money went through his bank accounts.
Yet while he was careful to avoid showing trappings of wealth in the UK, detectives from West Midlands Police discovered he had secretly paid for the £2.3 million mansion to be built in Pakistan.
In court, his defence portrayed him as a legitimate businessman who had earned around £400,000 over the nine-year period from debt collecting and other business interests in the UK and abroad.
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But police found no evidence of a legitimate debt collecting company and their investigation proved he had netted over £1 million during that period, without paying the required tax and National Insurance.
A search of Khan’s Birmingham home after his arrest uncovered plans for the ‘palace’ in the Attock region of Pakistan.