Former police superintendent denies £720k fraud

A former West Midlands Police superintendent charged over a £720,000 investment scam has denied fraud.

Syed Hussain, 54, of Barking, Greater London, who has since been sacked from the force, pleaded not guilty to one count of fraud by false representation and a count of transferring criminal property at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Farah Ullah, 43, from Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, gave no indication of her plea to fraud and two counts of transferring criminal property.

The charges are linked to claims a woman transferred money believing she would receive a substantial return, the Crown Prosecution Service previously said. The two will next appear at Southwark Crown Court on 29 July.

According to the charges Ullah is accused of dishonestly making a false representation to Nageena Choudhry, namely that her bank account had a balance of £198m, in order to induce her to make payments.

Hussain is accused of dishonestly making a false representation to Mohammed Saleem to secure the release of funds within a bank account.

It is alleged he said he was a signatory on the bank account and could confirm Choudhry was not the victim of fraud, the charges state.

"It's a substantial fraud case worth three quarters of a million," prosecutor Bethany Hutchison said.

The alleged offending occurred between November 2022 and April 2023, according to the charges.

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