An infamous fraudster is finally behind bars after being on the run for over five years following his escape from the country as a jury deliberated the case.
Zahid Khan from Birmingham, was first convicted of fraud in 2018 for running a £500,000 number plate scam along with his two brothers brothers Aamir Khan and Ayan Ahmed and cousin, Zubair Ahmad. Part way into his trial at a Birmingham crown court, Khan sacked his legal team and then delivered his own 'erratic' closing speech before remarkably feeling the country while the jury were deciding to convict him.
Once he had vanished, the 38 year-old then used Facebook to attempt to sway the jurors into finding him not guilty by sharing fake text messages. But his attempts failed, and although not in the country any longer, following conviction he was sentenced to 10 years in prison - which he is only now just serving, according to BirminghamLive.
During his trial, the court heard how Khan had attempted to register five existing personalised number plates with the DVLA under his name and the names of his relatives in order to sell them on for a profit. This included plate number 'C1', reportedly worth £250,000 and '2K', worth £85,000. However, it was when trying to sell the plate '8G', his plane was foiled.
The unique number plate belonged to Scottish lottery winner Gillian Bayford, who took home a £148million jackpot in August 2012. Through a Black Country firm, Khan tried to sell the plate to Bayford only to be told it was already fixed to her car on her driveway. The company reported it to the police who started an investigation, later finding how Khan had pressured an Audi salesman into giving out confidential information such as drivers names, addresses and chassis numbers.
Handwriting experts were brought in to compare forged documents submitted by Kahn, who sometimes went by alias Adam Hussain, with his hand-written passport application and voice analysts to listen to phone calls he made to car dealerships to prove his guilt.
Investigators found that in order to carry out the scam, Khan would call the DVLA, claiming to be the owner of these expensive number plates but that he had lost his logbook and needed to change his address. When he returned the logbook - which contained the genuine owners name - he would place himself or one of his family members as the 'grantee' on V778 retention documents which allow a person to keep a number plate, even if not attached to a vehicle.
Khan was also linked the the theft of six cars, the court heard, which had been fitted with stolen plates and was caught driving a car with cloned plates in 2014 and again just two months later. His brother Aamir attempted to flog two Audi A3s and a Range Rover Evoque via auction on Khan's behalf in 2015 but the auction house raised suspicions and reported it to the police. All three had fake plates.
In May 2016, Aimar exchanged a stolen Evoque for an Audi A8 at a car yard. Zahid then sold the Audi the following day. The devious pair tried to cover their tracks by creating fake text conversations with a supposed rogue car dealer who they dubbed "Paul Plates", while Khan at one point even attempted to pin the blame on an old school friend.
Conveniently, he claimed that his contact information was lost during a mysterious arson attack on his Bulls and Horses car business in Sparkhill in 2016. Khan, who shared his lavish, 'playboy' lifestyle openly and was known to have married three women, blamed "jealous haters" for falsely accusing him when information about his crimes was first reported by the Birmingham Mail. He even offered a £40,000 for anyone who could provide information that lead to finding the 'real' perpetrators.
After dumping his legal team and fleeing the country, Khan uploading a 16 minute video to Facebook addressed to judge Phillip Parker, attempting to clear his own name and explain his actions. In it, he said: "I am making this video to let you know I am very sorry, I did not want to do what I did, but I I felt like I had no other choice. Had I stayed in the UK, I was not having no justice and the only safest option I had was to leave this country."
However Khan was found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud, perverting the course of justice and concealing and converting criminal property having admitted three counts of fraudulently obtaining car insurance and being convicted of a fourth. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Khan spent many years on the run, hiding out in Dubai, where he kept up his luxurious lifestyle and boasted on Facebook about meeting celebrities, driving expensive sports cars and flying planes. However, in 2021, he travelled to Turkey, where he was arrested in November 2023 and extradited back to the UK.
In April of this year, he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court via video link from HMP Birmingham and admitted to failing to surrender. He will be sentenced for that later this month, while he continues to serve his existing prison sentences.
Speaking about the fraud case at the time Detective Constable Rob Piper, from West Midlands Police’s Economic Crime Unit, said: "Zahid Khan was the one skilled in this fraud. He had identified this fraud through his criminal brain and his heavy involvement in the criminal industry and then enlisted the help of his two brothers and cousin."
He added: "Zahid Khan portrayed the image of a legitimate businessman and a multi-millionaire…but in reality he is a career criminal and a con artist. He and his family and associates clearly thought they had identified a scheme that could make them significant sums of money: the five VRMs they had stolen the rights for had a combined value of half a million pounds. However, we uncovered the scam and he has rightly now been convicted for leading this criminal gang."
Aamir Khan, 25, of Moseley, was found guilty of several crimes including conspiracy to defraud, perverting the course of justice, and concealing and converting criminal property. He received a jail sentence of four years and six months.
Ayan Ahmed, 39, from Solihull, was convicted of conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to three years in jail. Zubair Ahmad, then aged 32 from Tyseley, was also found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and received a prison term of two years and eight months.
Kaesar Ali, who was 28 at the time and living in Sparkhill, received a sentence of six months for his involvement in a conspiracy to dishonestly make false representations.. Zahid Khan and Aamir Khan were also caught unlawfully smuggling Afghan people into the UK in a truck in 2015 and got 30 months in jail.