SHAME SHAME
CABBIE BROTHERS FROM BIRMINGHAM JAILED AFTER £300K OF DIRTY MONEY FOUND IN CARS
Two private hire driver brothers from Birmingham have been jailed after police found almost £300,000 of dirty money in their cars. According to the Birmingham Mail, officers found £149,945 in a black JD Sports bag in Irfan Zaffar’s Wolkswa- gen Polo, and £138,475 in a sealed package in the boot of Saud Zaffar’s Skoda. It happened after the pair were pulled over on the M62, near Ferry- bridge in West Yorkshire, at 7pm on February 18, 2018.
The haul was worth a combined £288,420. It was not known where they obtained the cash.
The duo refused to explain the source of the money they had in their vehicles when interviewed. But the Proceeds of Crime Act puts the burden of proof on the person carrying the cash to prove the money is from a legitimate source. Irfan Zaffar, 40, and Saud Zaffar, 34, of Hodgehill, Birmingham, both admitted transferring criminal property at Manchester Crown Court on June 8. They were both jailed for 22 months at the same court on , 2 December.
NORTHERN IRELAND CABBIE ESCAPES JAIL AFTER SHARING INTIMATE VIDEO OF PASSENGERS
A taxi driver from Portadown who shared videos of a couple engaging in “intimate foreplay” which ended up being seen “throughout the world” has narrowly escaped going to jail. ITV News reports that Craigavon Magistrates Court heard the three videos recorded on 18 July were initial- ly sent to just ten people in a private WhatsApp group but that within days, the videos had been seen “globally.” Imposing a two-month jail sentence on Andrew Tortolani, District Judge Greg McCourt said he was suspending it for a year because the 56-year-old had admitted his guilt and had himself experienced “harm and distress” in the form of online abuse. Ordering Tortolani to pay a £350 fine and a £15 offenders levy, the judge said the case served as a warning to every- one that “those who misuse com- munications in this way face prison.” A prosecuting lawyer told the court that on 19 July, a woman contacted the police to report she’d been made aware “that a taxi driver had shared videos of her and her date being intimate in the back of a taxi.” He explained how the videos had been
60
recorded on a “security camera facing back towards the passenger seat” and had been recorded after the female passenger and her date had been col- lected by Tortolani from a Belfast bar. The videos show the couple in the back seat engaging in a sex act with Tortolani in the driver’s seat and when the male passenger pays the fare at the end of the video, he leaves a tip with the driver who is heard saying it was “cheaper than a room.” The female passenger then told police she had received the videos from a friend who had been sent them by WhatsApp, adding that it “became apparent that the videos had been shared widely, indeed globally.” The couple, said the lawyer, “claimed not to have known they were being filmed” but in any event, they did not “give permission for the film to be shared.” Tortolani was arrested and interviewed a week later and he confirmed that “no one else had control of the footage, that he was the driver of the taxi and that he had sent the videos to a private WhatsApp group of ten friends without expectating the videos to be sent on.” “He said he didn’t intend to cause any
distress by doing so,” said the lawyer. In mitigation it was said the case serves as a “cautionary tale of the dangers of social media and how things can extrapolate out almost instantaneously”. It was stressed that Tortolani’s culpability lies in him sharing it to a private WhatsApp group, not what transpired after when they were seen “throughout the world.” “There are clearly other individuals who are guilty of doing that but he comes before the court for the harm he caused,” said the defence barrister, highlighting that the case had attracted publicity which had resulted in Tor- tolani and his family being subjected to “grossly offensive” online abuse. As a result of the offence Tortolani’s 30-year career as a taxi driver is over and he has expressed remorse for the consequences of his actions. Sentencing Tortolani, DJ McCourt commented that “social media is in many ways very bad and you have learned that lesson very clearly.” He told Tortolani his “downfall” was trusting people to be discreet but given what happened, “it seems clear that you should not have trusted them.”
JANUARY 2022
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
