Birmingham Indian jailed for laundering 64 million pounds

Birmingham Indian jailed for laundering 64 million pounds
ANJALI MODY

LONDON, MARCH 17: Tarsem Sabharwal, a Birmingham resident and a father of four, has been jailed for 12 years for laundering drugs money. Sabharwal, 62, has been convicted of laundering œ 64 million from the proceeds of drug-trafficking. This is one of the single largest cases of drugs money laundering in the UK. Sabharwal's wife, Bimla Kumari, 59, who was arrested with him and charged, was later acquitted.

The Sabharwals were arrested on May 18 last year after exchanging œ 9,50,000into Dutch guilders at a bureau de change, TTT Moneycorp, in Sloane Street inLondon's Knightsbridge area. Customs and Excise had placed them underobservation following disclosure from a number of bureau de changes in Londonover unusually large transactions.

Nothing in Sabharwal's lifestyle indicated that he had such large sums ofcash. At the time of his arrest, he was officially unemployed and claimingsocial security benefit. He had, some years before, run a travel agency whichfolded up. Apparently, his only expensive possession was a top of the lineMercedes Benz.

During the trial, counsel for the prosecution, James Wadsworth saidthat in a 14 month period from April 1998 to May 1999 Sabharwal and his wifemade two to three trips a week from Birmingham to London with suitcasesfilled with banknotes. He said they exchanged an average of œ 1 milliona week for Dutch guilders.

Wadsworth said that forensic examination of the notes found that more than95 per cent of them had traces of cocaine and had unusually high traces ofother drugs. He said: ``The only conclusion that you can come to is that they were acting probably on behalf of quite big drugs dealers turning their money back from the pounds that they had sold the drugs for into Dutch guilders to go abroad.''

Throughout the trial, Sabharwal maintained the money had come from the garments business, to which he had no connection. Although living inEdgbaston in Birmingham, he ran a bureau de change on Weston Road, Southall, west London. He said that he exchanged the money, at the other bureau de changes throughout the city, to accommodate clients who wanted their money in guilders. Customs officers said that the business in Southall was just afront for the large amounts of cash that Sabharwal handled.

The garments business in the Midlands, which is dominated by south Asians,has often been the subject of criminal investigations. It has been cited as a source of money in other drug-trafficking cases. Just last week, four people of Indian origin in Leicester arrested on drug-trafficking charges also claimed that they received the money from the garments trade.

Passing sentence at Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Anthony Nicholl said: ``People who facilitate the disposal of the proceeds of drug-trafficking are essential to those who carry on drug-trafficking. It is quite obvious that there are other more serious criminals behind you who have benefited...'' But, he concluded: ``The sentence must be a deterrent to others who are tempted to participate in such crimes.'' Judge Nicholl said the maximum sentence for the offence was 14 years imprisonment but on account that Sabharwal had been suffering from depression since 1995, he had reduced it to 12 years.

Customs officials in Birmingham said they would have preferred to get at the people who Sabharwal was acting for but were pleased he had been found guilty. His arrest, they said, was the result of a change in tactics used to fight drug-trafficking. British customs is now employing methods to try and deprive drug traffickers of their cash assets. Customs investigator Stuart Gardner said: ``With no money, it is far harder for them to operate, whereas if we just took the drugs off them they'd just buy more.''

Gardner said that the authorities were continuing their investigation: ``We are trying to track down who the money was being passed on to and where the money had come from in the Midlands.'' But, he added, they did not expect to get much more information from Sabharwal who must fear reprisals against his family from the big drug dealers he was acting for.