A Bradford scrap jewellery business became the centre of a £266 million money laundering operation, processing bags of criminal cash at a rate of up to £1.7 million a day and turning it into gold shipped to Dubai.
Now, the owner of a London company used as a front for the scheme has been jailed for seven years, the latest sentence in an investigation that began a decade ago.
Samir Jagirdar, 58, of Addiscombe Road, Croydon, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Monday 12 October after admitting money laundering between 2012 and 2016. He was also banned from being a company director.
Jagirdar owned and directed Pure Nines, based in London’s Hatton Garden. West Yorkshire Police investigators established that the company was used to channel cash to Bradford-based Fowler Oldfield and purchase gold for export to Dubai.
How a jewellery business became a cash-processing operation
Fowler Oldfield, on Hall Lane, was a long-established business that legitimately bought scrap jewellery for cash.
But investigators found its activities had changed dramatically. Couriers travelled from across the country to deliver bags of money, which staff counted, packed and handed to cash-in-transit companies for banking.
The money was then used to buy high-purity gold grain, which was shipped to Dubai using false shipping invoices.
The process gave criminal proceeds an appearance of legitimacy, allowing those behind the money to avoid the checks they would have faced if they had tried to bank it or buy gold themselves.
Banking enquiries revealed the scale of the change. Cash paid into the company’s accounts rose from £11,000 in 2012 to more than £650,000 in 2013. By 2015, the figure had reached £95 million.
Investigators calculated that more than £266 million was paid into Fowler Oldfield’s accounts between January 2014 and September 2016.
The warning that triggered the investigation
Police were alerted in 2016 after a security company raised concerns about the sharp increase in money its staff were collecting from the premises.
Surveillance showed couriers regularly arriving at the Hall Lane building with large bags. Internal CCTV later revealed staff running banknotes through counting machines and preparing them for collection.
In September 2016, officers searched Fowler Oldfield and two London businesses, including Pure Nines. They arrested 16 people and recovered cash and gold worth more than £4 million.
At Pure Nines, officers found a holdall stuffed with cash, a counting machine and bundles of money in a safe and on a worktop.
The safe also contained what appeared to be 147 gold bars. Only one was genuine. The others were silver bars plated with gold, which investigators said helped create the appearance of a legitimate gold business.
Building the case required detailed analysis of invoices, emails and other paperwork, alongside more than 8,000 hours of CCTV footage.
Seven men sentenced
Jagirdar’s sentence follows convictions and sentences for six other men involved in the operation.
In March 2025, Fowler Oldfield director Daniel Rawson was jailed for ten years and ten months. Fellow director Gregory Frankel received 11 years and eight months, Haroon Rashid received ten years, and Arjun Babber received 11 years.
Frankel, Rashid and Babber were sentenced in their absence and are believed to have left the country. Police are continuing efforts to locate them and secure their return to the UK.
In August 2026, Jagirdar’s brother-in-law Baqa Haider was jailed for six years. Evidence showed that Haider and Jagirdar created false shipping invoices and travelled to Dubai to export and deliver gold.
Fowler Oldfield employee Nathan Rivers received a 27-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with a curfew requirement.
Police said much of the money reaching Fowler Oldfield by 2016 had been directed there by Shahid Qadar, who was described in court as an international money launderer based in Dubai.
‘Not a victimless crime’
Ramona Senior, who led the investigation as head of West Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit and now leads the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit, said the operation laundered criminal cash “on a truly industrial scale”.
“Behind every bank note that went through their fingers is the harm that serious and organised crime causes in our communities, whether that be from the supply of controlled drugs and the serious violence that accompanies it, or the cruelty and exploitation of human trafficking and modern slavery,” she said.
“Money laundering is not a victimless crime and those who involve themselves in it are helping criminals to prosper from the misery of others.”
She described it as the largest investigation undertaken by the force’s Economic Crime Unit, requiring years of specialist work with the Crown Prosecution Service.
The case also exposed failures in banking oversight. In December 2021, NatWest was fined approximately £264.8 million following a Financial Conduct Authority prosecution over its failure to properly monitor Fowler Oldfield’s banking activities.
Proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act remain ongoing against those convicted.
Appeal to find three convicted men
Police are still seeking Gregory Frankel, Haroon Rashid and Arjun Babber.
“We remain absolutely determined to do everything we can to ensure these men are found and returned to the UK to serve their sentences,” Senior said.
Anyone with information about their whereabouts can contact West Yorkshire Police on 101 or through online live chat, quoting Operation Larkshot.
Information can also be given anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
