Police officer who hid drugs money under bed walks free

A female police officer who hid a shoebox containing drugs money for her corrupt cop husband under their bed was spared jail today (mon).

Kashif Mahmood, 32, was jailed for eight years last May for helping an organised crime group rob their rivals in a Line of Duty-style corruption plot.

He regularly jetted off to Dubai and was lavished with designer watches while working with east London gangsters.

Mahmood carried out fake stops on cars he knew to be carrying hundreds of thousands of pounds in drug money.

His wife WPC Shareen Kashif (corr), 30, admitted concealing criminal property after the box, crammed with thousands of pounds, was found under their bed at their home in Harlow, Essex.

Prosecutor Tom Williams said: ‘In the early hours of morning on 28 Apil 2020 when the police arrived at Kashif Mahmood’s home address to arrest him on suspicion of misconduct in public officer and for a number of other offences.

‘She accepted subsequently in interview under caution that before the police could search their bedroom, she moved a box which belonged to her husband from the wardrobe under the bed.

‘Although she said it was moved, in fact the concealment remains effective because it was never found.’

Kashif told officers during her police interview that she had moved the box at her husband’s instructions.

She admitted her husband had told her of his illegal activities a few days before his arrest and she had been ‘very angry’ about it.

‘Reflecting on what she had done, she felt her behaviour was silly and a stupid thing,’ added Mr Williams.

The prosecutor said that the box full of money had never been retrieved but it is thought it would have been a significant amount.

‘The sums of money involved in the transactions were enormous and the sums of money found is a number of those defendants’ addresses were very large,’ said Mr Williams.

Kashif was subsequently arrested after police discovered Encrochat messages between the London gang and a co-conspirator in Dubai.

Informing the Dubai contact of Mahmood’s arrest, the message from Mohsin Khan read: ‘When they raided his house his wife managed to hide the paper they took him his phone and laptop’

The court heard that Kashif, who was on maternity leave at the time of the raid, was dismissed without notice following a Met Police misconduct hearing in December 2021.

Allan Compton QC, for Kashif, said: ‘She was acting under the direction of her husband, albeit for a very short passage of time, at his request to move the box.

‘She acted awfully.’

The barrister urged the court to not impose an immediate prison sentence on his client, who is now the sole carer of the couple’s three-year-old daughter.

‘She has lost her job, she has lost her good name.

‘The world for her is very different than it was in April 2020,’ he added.

Judge David Tomlinson said: ‘The position is by 28 April 2020 as a serving police officer married to another police officer you had, by that time of your offending become aware that your husband had been acquiring criminal property in a way that, as I observed at the time of sentencing him, may have been beyond the comprehension of legislature and indeed beyond the guidelines for fraud, money laundering and money laundering offences.’

The judge said that Mahmood’s criminal conduct was plainly ‘putting certain people in very grave physical danger’.

Judge Tomlinson acknowledged Kashif acted ‘spontaneously’ but rejected the assertion she didn’t have full knowledge of her husband’s criminal activity.

Kashif attended court dressed in black leggings, a white blouse and a beige sleeveless top while being supported by family members in a packed public gallery.

Mahmood was accompanied by Romanian bodybuilder buddy Ioan Gherghel, 34, posing as his police partner, when they confiscated £850,000 from criminals in March last year.

They handed it to 34-year-old gangster twins, Shabaz and Shazad Khan and their older brother Mohsin Khan.

Investigations by the Met’s anti-corruption unit began after the French gendarmerie infiltrated the EncroChat encrypted phone network in April 2020, revealing Mahmood was using his police powers to work with the Khan gang.

Mahmood and the Khans were ‘long-standing associates’ and took holidays together in Dubai.

While Mahmood was jailed for eight years, ringleader Mohsin Khan, 35, was sentenced to 16 years jail and Shazad was locked up for 15 years while Shabaz received 14 years.

Gherghel was jailed for six years.

Kashif, of Woodcroft, Harlow, admitted concealing criminal property.

She was given a 20-month sentence, suspended for 21 months, and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work.
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