A MAN and woman who helped import heroin worth £500,000 from Afghanistan to Britain are paying back just £1 each for their crime.
The pair and another man were handed long jail sentences in May for their part in an operation to smuggle the drugs - 5.5 kilos hidden in tubes stitched into carpets.
A judge has ordered Janhangeer Ali and Naela Khalid to pay just £1 each - even though it is estimated their gang made £60,000 from the crime.
The third other member of the gang, Moshin Khan, has been asked to hand over £1,000. Police say the pair paying back £1 had no assets to take.
The ruling was made at Minshull Street Crown Court in a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing. The legislation was introduced to allow police to seize ill-gotten goods from criminals. Khan, 30, of Sharpe Street, Collyhurst, was said to have made £31,750 from the crime. But police found cash and assets worth only £1,000, which he was ordered to pay back within two months. Another 44 days will be added to his jail sentence if he fails to pay up.
Khalid, 27, of Alston Gardens, Burnage, was adjudged to have made £450 while her fellow gang member Ali, 29, of Waterloo Street, Glodwick, was adjudged to have made £30,000.
But Judge Mushtaq Khokhar could only order them to pay a nominal £1 each because police could find no `realisable assets'.
The nominal £1 fine is a technical move which allows police to seize any other assets in the future up to the value of the 'benefit' figure set by the court.
Dangerous
Ali and Khalid were given 28 days to pay up, and were told they faced a further day behind bars on top of their prison sentences if they failed to pay.
Khan is serving a 12-year jail sentence for drugs offences and dangerous driving. Ali is serving 10 years, while Khalid was sentenced to six years for drug offences.
Other defendants convicted in the same smuggling operation have been dealt with during previous Proceeds of Crime hearings.
Following the latest hearing, Det Chf Insp Dominic Scally said the Proceeds of Crime legislation was a powerful tool which had helped Greater Manchester Police seize more than £4m in cash and assets last year.
He stressed that the three `continue to owe that money', adding: "When they come out of prison, should they ever get property or assets in the future, we can seek to take them."
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WHEN THESE 3 COME OUT OF JAIL,THEY WILL JUST VANISH,OR THEIR DATA WILL BE LOST.
£1,SOMEONE IS HAVING A LAUGH AND ITS NOT ME.YOU PAY MORE IN CERTAIN PARTS FOR FILLING A DUSTBIN INCORRECTLY
If the have no assets, why not make them go to work to pay it all off?
Now,if it would have been me ???????????
it should be a day per £1 added onto the sentence not in total
I bet assets will suddenly emerge when they are released. If somebody is hiding their assests they should be convicted as well
Of course this is the first time these pillars if society have done this no doubt, more like the first time they have been caught.
Who said crime doesn't pay?
They should be deported.
whats he point of fines when if you havent got money to pay back, then they just go for the bare minimum.
these people should be forced to pay back any future money they earn or make back to pay the fine off.
an no chance of ever claiming any benefits also. thats just an easy way of getting money.
But if a pensioner couldn't pay their tv licence/council tax they would be hounded into their graves until they found the means to pay the fine. New labour, tough on crime,tough on the causes of crime.....yeah right!
In response
They should be deported.
Bean B4, manchester
2/09/2008 at 16:06
If they were born in the UK? where should they be deported to?
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. Now where did I hear that promise???
Deport them to Thailand but put some of the drugs in any luggage they take with them. Now that is punishment!!!!!
was it april fools day when the judge ordered them to pay £1 each back??? thats not punishment???
"No asset's" the uk is the greatest country in the world if you have no assets,
the truth hurt's maybe if politician's had to live next
door to criminal's with no asset's they might just have
a different outlook on life.
Philten.
No, ok, so they don't have any money or posessions.
Let them sweep the streets, do the shopping for those less able, clean the parks with tweezers, muck out the dog and horse kennels at the police station............. the list is endless.
Someone needs to have the guts to give people like these a good kick in the pants and make them pay!
Everyone is too scared to, we all want to see justice served, surely?
Hard labour! Bring in the pink prison suits!
Pravda, you are absolutely right.
Some years back, Cherie Blair, acting for the prosecution, asked for an old man to be imprisoned because he had not paid his council tax, even though she admitted he could not afford to pay it.
It is time real criminals were made to work hard to pay back something to victims or society in general.
"Deport them to Thailand but put some of the drugs in any luggage they take with them. Now that is punishment!!!!!"
What have you got against Thailand? We have enough trouble here without importing any from the UK thanks.
Bet they'll have no problems claiming benefits once they are released though...this country is sick!
Thaitanium,
I have absolutely nothing against Thailand, I am banking on them getting caught at the airport and after a short stay at the Bangkok Hilton they are put on the nasty side of the machine gun that they use on drug dealers and importers!!!!!
As I said time for real justice and punishments to be meted out!
MysteriousBoy, Manchester:
Afghanistan - they like to do business there.
There should be a claim on any future assets, the tiniest amount they ever own should be subject to this, without any input from sympathetic judges. They should be given a bill, related to possible criminal earnings, payable through assets/income or benefits. Perhaps then we will export more scum and import less trash.
Six and ten years in british prison? and the law wonder why we have a drug problem.These people should serve their sentences in a prison abroad tailand/pakistan/afghanistan .not cushy british prisons where they live the life of luxury.I wonder how many drugtakers have a life of misery because of people like these...Family killers.
This makes me want to puke. these people are distroying familys lives and killing people with their actions.
makes me sick....
Do u people ever think before you post these comments i mean dont you ever think why the girl might have got six years theres reasons behind everything, maybe these dealers might have taken advantage of her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!