Judge blasts crooked Leeds accountant for 'taking the mick' over payback-delay tactics
A crooked accountant was told he was “taking the mick” by a crown court judge for causing constant delays in a money-laundering case.
Bilal Farooq was blasted by Judge Kate Rayfield during a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing at Leeds Crown Court.
He had been jailed last year for helping to launder hundreds of thousands of pounds for a drug dealer.
The 36-year-old appeared for the POCA hearing this week to determine how much money he had earned through his criminal conduct, and how much he was required to pay back.
But the hearing could not make progress because he had not communicated with his barrister for months.
It was suggested he had been badly affected by his recent divorce.
But Judge Rayfield was unsympathetic and told Farooq: “You are absolutely taking the mick in these proceedings.
“Your divorce does not stop you seeing your solicitor for six months.
“There’s been adjournment after adjournment after adjournment, almost all of them because of your excuses.”
She adjourned the case again until January 19 next year.
Farooq was jailed in June last year for helping to launder money for convicted Leeds dealer, Kane Dacosta, who was convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine.
Farooq, of Westwinn View, Whinmoor, had admitted three charges of concealing , disguising, converting or transferring criminal property, related to activity between June of 2019 and June 2020.
He was said to have been involved in laundering about £190,000 in total, even helping to buy a £36,000 Mercedes which Dacosta was then able to use after his release in July 2020.
Farooq was listed in Dacosta’s phone as “Accountant” and he had “turned a blind eye” to where the cash was coming from.
Farooq was given a two-year jail sentence in June last year at Bradford Crown Court.