MALIK: PROPERTY BARON CLAIMED £38,000 IN DOLE
Criminal Court, Old Bailey, LONDON, EC4
Tel: 020 7236 0116
Pix: 020 7329 2877
Snaresbrook Crown Court/Sonia Elks
email:news@centralnews.co.uk
https://www.courtnewsuk.co.uk
with pic of Malik
26 August 2011
property…1
A property baron who ran a seven-year fraud claiming benefits while building up a housing portfolio worth more than £800,000 has been jailed for two years.
Sly Malik, 47, failed to declare his growing property rental empire or his thousands in the bank in 12 fraudulent applications for jobseekers allowance, housing and council tax benefit.
He claimed £38,952 despite having a healthy rental income from his property portfolio, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
‘It isn’t as though he needed the money, or the amounts he was obtaining was enhancing his lifestyle in any significant way,’ said his lawyer Bernard Eaton.
Malik was jailed after the judge, Mr Recorder David Aaronberg QC said he had repeatedly ‘lied through his teeth’ to cover up the fraud.
The judge suggested that Malik may have used his benefits to help purchase yet more flats, which he rented out to bring in yet more cash, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
He said: ‘It is outright dishonest, and you knew it was dishonest from the start.’
Malik said he had been been introduced to property investment by his fashion designer mother in 1988.
When she died in 2000, he was given an inheritance of £238,000, which he received in February 2001, and went on to buy a property at 37 Westbury Street, Elland, Yorkshire
But in June 2002, he applied for Housing and Council tax, while failing to declare that the owned the flat or another property at 55 Thornhill Rd in Rastick, Brighouse which was being rented out.
Malik continued to build his property empire over the next seven years, during which he made 11 further dishonest claims for jobseekers allowance, housing benefit and council tax.
By the time of his last claim for benefit in April 2009, he owned nine properties in Chigwell, Halifax, Brighouse, and Bradford, and had thousands in the bank.
He also failed to declare that he was the director of a company called Club Jenna UK International, and held bank accounts identifying him as the CEO of Maliks of London and a representative of London Apparells UK international.
The DWP carried out a two-year investigation into his activities, during which he ‘lied through his teeth’ to protest his innocence, the court heard.
The jury took just an hour to find him unanimously guilty of all 12 counts.
Martin Eaton defending said: ‘It is plain to see that he firmly believed what he was doing was acceptable, but he understands completely that he was not entitled to the funds as a matter of logical reality, given the strength of his income and assets in the relevant periods.
Malik’s assets have now been frozen, leaving him with an allowance of just £250 a week, he said.
The judge told Malik: ‘When questioned about your ownership and your failure to make declarations of the properties you owned and the money you had in the bank, you lied through your teeth.
‘You failed to give any sensible explanation when you were questioned about this matter.’
He added: ‘You maintained your not guilty plea, and giving evidence before the jury in this trial, I am quite satisfied that once again, you lied through your teeth.’
Malik, of (200A) Ripple Road, Barking, was sentenced to two years in prison for each of the 12 charges of making a false representation, all of which will be served concurrently.
He was ordered to pay £329 in investigation costs and £4,000 towards the cost of the trial, and could also be stripped of the profits from his crimes at a confiscation hearing set for 15 February next year.
ends
