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The father of a money launderer claimed he had gone on an incredible lottery winning streak when he bought a £412,000 home.

Malik Abdullah Farooq, 81, said he funded the lavish property thanks to 123 prize-winning tickets in the Pakistani lottery.

He claimed to have won the cash between July 2012 and February 2013.

But the National Crime Agency was sceptical, and employed an expert statistician who worked out Farooq's good luck was as likely as scooping the UK National Lottery jackpot 40 weeks running.

Both Farooq and his son Kashaf Ali Khan, 44, gave cops the incredible story when they were arrested in September and October 2014.

Khan, from Birmingham, has since admitted money laundering by using the criminal loot to buy the house.

He also admitted paying a £175,000 confiscation order, given after an earlier money laundering conviction in 2010, with criminal cash.

At Birmingham Crown Court today, Khan was sentenced to 22 months in jail after admitting he knew the money was the proceeds of crime.

(Image: PA)

In October 2009 the NCA caught him handing over a holdall to someone which contained £74,830 in cash.

The following September Khan admitted money laundering offences and received a suspended prison sentence together with an order to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

In January 2012 Khan was ordered to pay £175,000 because of the conviction.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs have no records of him working and despite Khan having no recorded legitimate income, he paid off the £175,000 in cash within 12 months.

He has now admitted paying off the confiscation order using further criminal cash.

In 2013 he used his father's funds to buy the property.

During the previous year, flurries of money from Dubai were paid into Farooq's Pakistan bank account.

Farooq used black-market prize bond dealers in Pakistan a bid to fool investigators into believing he had won legitimate prizes.

Winners of the Pakistan state lottery have to wait several weeks to collect their winnings.

Because of that, some are willing to sacrifice an amount by selling their winning ticket to an agent for a lesser sum which they get immediately

The black-market agents then sell on the winning tickets – for more than they are worth – to crooks needing to clean their criminal money who can then get prize organisers to issue payment in their name.

NCA senior investigating officer Phil Houghton said: "Kashaf Ali Khan has admitted two counts of money laundering because of the weight of evidence against him.

"He thought that he had the perfect explanation if questioned about how he funded the house purchase.

"He and his father possessed documentation to support their story of being genuine winners of the Pakistan prize bond scheme.

"Khan didn't account for NCA investigators discovering the scheme's black market and proving he had used it to clean criminal money.

"Offenders like Khan are at the centre of serious organised crime because they enable other high end crooks to move and clean their money.

"The issue poses a priority threat for the NCA and we do everything possible to combat it."

Two money laundering charges against Farooq were left to lie on file.