Acklam pair who carried out £2m frauds jailed for total of more than 11 years

Muhammed Asif Ali sat in the dock alongside his son and wife who received suspended sentences for their part in one of the conspiracies.

A Teesside businessman sat in the dock alongside his son and wife as he was jailed for six and a half years for fraud totalling more than £2m.

Muhammed Asif Ali, and partner in crime Carol Ann Bainbridge, 48, were previously convicted by a jury of conspiring to defraud the former regional development agency One North East of £500,000.

The pair also faced a separate charge of £1.6m mortgage fraud, alongside Ali’s son, Mohammed Salman Ali, 28, and, wife Ghazala Ali, 45.

For her part in both crimes, Bainbridge was jailed for five years.

Teesside Crown Court heard how they defrauded the now-defunct One North East between June 2008 and October 2009.

Prosecutor Andrew Haslam told a previous hearing they took money from the agency and kept it for their own ends in a bank account in Ali’s name.

He said just over £519,000 of taxpayers’ money was paid out by One North East on the basis of false information, and was spent.

He said Ali, 56, of Acklam Road, Middlesbrough, used other people’s identities and appointed “stooges” as company directors, giving him control while hiding his involvement and diverting creditors.

The case concerned a company, Well Springs Green Lane Ltd, and its failed development in Spennymoor, County Durham.

Ali and Bainbridge also took part in the £1.6m mortgage fraud alongside his wife and son where they used false identities or the identities of unsuspecting third parties as well as falsifying incomes to defraud a number of fincial institutions.

Angus McDonald, prosecuting yesterday, said Ali Sr “played a leading role” in the conspiracy while Bainbridge “operated in partnership” with him.

Nigel Ingram, defending Ali Sr, said: “References show he is a man held in high regard in some quarters.

“You are not dealing with a man involved in fraud who was involved in a particularly lavish lifestyle.”

Katy Rafter, for Bainbridge, a mother of Skerne Way, Darlington, said she was “of previous good character before she was involved in this conspiracy”.

In sentencing she asked the judge to take into account that her client had some “genuine mental health difficulties”.

Tanveer Bashir, for Salman Ali, said he “wasn’t a prime mover in the fraud and wasn’t a big mover of the money.

“In reality he wasn’t someone who would have been caught up in this had it not been for the company he kept, ie, his father and mortgage brokers.”

Mohammed Qazi for Ghazala Ali, a mum-of- three of Acklam Road, said but for her relationship with her husband “would she have embarked on this criminality?”

“One of the reasons she was lending support to the (mortgage) applications was that she thought she could retain the security of the family home.”

Ali Sr and his son, also of Acklam Road, admitted taking part in the plot.

Bainbridge and Ghazala Ali denied the conspiracy and were convicted after a trial in December 2013.

Judge Les Spittle, described the frauds as “quite sophisticated” and told Ali Sr: “You are devious and manipulative in your dealings”

Salman Ali was given 22 months suspended for 18 months with 200 hours unpaid community work. His mother Ghazala Ali received 24 months suspended for 18 months with a supervision order.

All defendants were also barred from being a company director for 15 years.