November 25, 2004 The Times
High street fraud raised millions for terrorism By Lewis Smith
A HUGE fraud carried out on banks and high street stores across Britain is estimated to have raised millions of pounds for Islamic terrorists.
Seven men were jailed yesterday and recommended for deportation to Algeria after admitting their roles in the fraud. They were rounded up in a police operation led by the Anti-Terrorist Squad that led to the discovery of more than 300 fake bank accounts.
The men jailed in London, all of them asylum-seekers, were convicted of conspiracy to defraud, but may have been unaware of the final destination of the money that they raised.
Police were able to trace £800,000, but believe that it was only a "small proportion" of the total raised and syphoned off to associates abroad.
All of the men lived modestly and showed no signs of living on more than a small cut of the huge sums that they raised.
Detectives suspect that they may have been duped by Islamist fundamentalists into carrying out the scam.
They were convicted of the fraud, but there was no evidence to show that they were involved knowingly in raising money for terrorist organisations or that they were members of terror groups.
The masterminds of the plot, however, have eluded justice. Anti-terrorist officers, backed by the Special Branch National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit, still hope to identify them.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, national co-ordinator of terrorist investigations, said: "This was a systematic abuse of the banking system to perpetrate fraud.
"Those involved went to great lengths to cover their tracks and the full scale of their scheme."
Judge Simon Smith, at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court, told the seven defendants: "There is more going on here than the specific acts which any one person did. I'm quite satisfied all the persons here must have known they were taking part in something much bigger."
He recommended that they all be deported after betraying the nation that gave them protection after they left Algeria. "What you were taking part in was a massive, organised fraud on banks and stores throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain."
The fraud was carried out by paying for clothes and electrical goods with cheques from fraudulent accounts and claiming cash refunds before the cheques could bounce. Groups of "foot soldiers" would be sent out to "blitz" stores, including House of Fraser, John Lewis, M&S, Gap and Next, in towns up and down the country.
The network of conspirators was broken after the arrest of one of its members in Stratford-upon-Avon after a Laura Ashley manager became suspicious and raised the alarm.
Investigations by police quickly showed that far from being an isolated incident, the refund scam was widespread and highly co-ordinated. One raid unearthed a £1.5 million cache of clothes and electrical products with receipts attached ready for claiming refunds.
Ali Khelifi, 34, of Harlesden, northwest London, was the most senior member caught in the police operation, closely followed by Fouad Boukadir, 22, of Leyton, East London.
Boukadir was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday, the heaviest of the penalties imposed by Judge Smith. Khelifi, will be sentenced in January.