Businessman Bhadresh Shah, 49 and his son Abhishek Shah, 24 fled after laundering £80 million, leaving behind Bhadresh's wife, Falguni Shah, 45, who got four years.
The two (Bhadresh and Abhishek) were jailed for 12 and nine years respectively but fled while on bail and remain at large, leaving behind Falguni Shah. The pair Bhadresh and Abhisekh stood trial with Falguni Shah, Dipak Doshi, 57, and Dinesh Parmar, 35, all found guilty as accomplices to launder millions of pounds between September 2011 and April 2014.
Parmar and Doshi were each jailed for five years for one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Two of the defendants, Bhadresh and Abhishek Shah, have deliberately absconded and Falguni Shah, 45, who was jailed for four years.
Bhadresh was also found guilty of possessing mephedrone and ketamine with the intent to black-market. Branded as a 'disgrace' by his defence barrister Leonard Smith QC, Bhadresh was pressurising his family and 'guillable' businessmen to take part in his dodgy schemes through organised crime gangs across the country from their hub at Chandni Bazaar in Wembley, northwest London, while posing as a pious, respectable Hindu of the Gujarati community.
Judge Andrew Goymer said in a statement: “The amounts of money that were laundered through those companies are quite staggering. There's no doubt in my mind that this money has come predominantly from the sale of controlled drugs.”
The police raided the Bazar in Ealing Road where they found false company stamps that were used to create legitimate business documents that were linked to at least 10m in transfers, cash laundering using money services and false invoices from several companies using the same templates.
The Metropolitan Police has asked for anyone with information about their whereabouts to contact police on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
