Parts were used to patch-up insurance write-offs before selling them on for profit
One of the UK’s largest car ‘chop shop’ gangs has been ordered to pay back more than £1 million of their ill-gotten gains.
Mohammed Nadeem, Nadeem Arshad, Zahir Hussain and Amaan Zameer were jailed for a total of 23 years at Birmingham Crown Court in December 2019.
Three of the men have now been ordered to pay back a total of £1.1million after officers trawled back through their financial dealings.
Nadeem, 28, Arshad, 42, and Zameer, 30, were ordered to pay back the huge amount following a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Arshad must also pay back £114,941 after he was unable to explain a series of suspicious bank account deposits.
Nadeem and Zameer must also pay back £17,543 and £51,183 respectively while the court will hear a Proceeds of Crime Act application against Zahir Hussain, 32, next month.
Detective Inspector Hannah Whitehouse, said: “This group was handling stolen cars on a huge scale, bigger than anything we’ve ever seen in the West Midlands.
“They were providing a very active market for car thieves, causing lots of pain and distress to motorists.
“These men are still in jail but it’s important we show crime doesn’t pay and will pursue offenders through the courts to strip them of their ill-gotten gains.
“We’ll take any cash and assets the men have to repay the POCA amount and any outstanding debt will hang over them for life.
“We will regularly re-visit their cases and seize any property or inheritance they should come into until the debt is paid off.”
The men bought damaged vehicles from salvage auctions before fixing them using parts from stolen cars and selling them online.
One unsuspecting customer paid more than £10,000 for a VW Golf which police later revealed had been fitted with airbags from a stolen car which would not have deployed in a crash.
Detectives linked the gang to 117 cars, stolen from the West Midlands, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire and Yorkshire.
Nadeem and Hussain, of Lozells, and Zameer, of Sparkbrook, all admitted conspiring to handle stolen vehicles.
Arshad was jailed for seven years, Nadeem to six years, Zameer five years and three months and Hussain was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
Zameer was also given three months for assault with intent to resist arrest, to be served consecutively.
