LONDON: A wanted fugitive whose brother was convicted of a role in a 50-million-pound ($64m) British mortgage scam has had opulent necklaces, gold, silver and diamond-encrusted Rolex watches seized from a safe deposit box.

The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said on Wednesday it had confiscated 500,000 pounds ($638,500) worth of jewellery, including a gold ring emblazoned with the name “Nisar”, from the safe deposit box of the former partner of Nisar Afzal.

The SFO said it used a listed asset order, a new tool in its armoury, to seize and forfeit listed assets linked to Afzal, which it believes to be the proceeds of crime.

His former partner had consented to the order, the SFO said.

A warrant remains out for his arrest after he fled Britain for Pakistan in the mid-2000s. The SFO alleges he was implicated in a fraud against mortgage lenders, for which his brother, Saghir Afzal, was convicted and jailed in 2011 for 13 years.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2020