£350,000 confiscated from Dumfries restaurant owner

Syed Mussawar Abbas Naqvi, 56, was made the subject of the confiscation order at Dumfries Sheriff Court yesterday after previously pleading guilty on September 13 2013.
On April 14 2011 officers from the Home Office and Police Scotland, as part of an intelligence-led operation into the facilitation of illegal entrants into the UK, searched the India Palms restaurant in Buccleuch Street, Dumfries.
A waiter in the restaurant was arrested when it was discovered that he was an illegal immigrant. He was not an EU citizen and did not have permission to be working in the UK.
Mr Naqvi’s home was also searched on the same day and £120,900 in cash was recovered.
Lindsey Miller, procurator fiscal for organised crime and counter terrorism, said: “Syed Naqvi pleaded guilty to facilitating a breach of immigration law and was fined £2000.
“Accused people, no matter if they are convicted at summary level or at the High Court, must now account for their unexplained income if they are deemed to have obtained a benefit from their criminality.”
She added: “By virtue of this conviction and the potential for substantial profit, under the Proceeds of Crime Act Naqvi was deemed to have a ‘criminal lifestyle’ which allows his full income and assets for the six years prior to the offence to be made the subject of a rigorous investigation by our specialist forensic accountants.”
Ms Miller added that Mr Naqvi was unable to provide a legitimate source for £350,000 of his income and a confiscation order for that total was subsequently made.
The recovered funds will be re-invested into communities by Scottish Ministers through the CashBack for Communities programme.