Comments Suspended


The son of Scottish Labour MP and millionaire businessman Mohammad Sarwar has been found guilty of laundering almost £850,000 through the wholesale business established by his father.

Athif Sarwar was convicted by a majority verdict following a highly complex six-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Sentence on the 28-year-old father-of-two, who was granted bail, was deferred until late June for background reports.

A confiscation order was also served on Sarwar.

His family say they will appeal against the conviction.

The scam took place between February 24 and April 25, 2003, when Sarwar was managing director at United Wholesale (Scotland) Ltd, which has its headquarters in Maxwell Road, Glasgow.

His co-accused, Mansoor "Tony" Khan, 43, of Giffnock, Glasgow, who was the assistant manager of the cash and carry, was found not guilty of any involvement.

The jury took just 90 minutes to convict Sarwar, of Mearnskirk, near Glasgow, on two charges, one of transferring £565,000 as part of a VAT fraud scam and a second of transferring £280,500 from United Wholesale's bank account to another held by a shell company, both contrary to the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Mohammad Sarwar, who had been in court all week, maintained his son was not guilty of all charges and said the family would be appealing against the decision.

Mr Sarwar said: "We will contest the verdict.

"There was no shred of evidence to convict and we will appeal against the sentence."