Abu Hamza's son ordered to pay back just £5,200 from money laundering plot

The eldest son of hook-handed hate cleric Abu Hamza has been ordered to pay back just £5,200 despite making nearly £180,000 from a money laundering plot.

Tito Ibn-Sheikh, 35, was handed information by an HSBC bank insider, which he used to create false identities for account holders, Southwark Crown Court heard.

The bank accounts were then used to launder the proceeds of thefts and frauds, with victims losing a total of £342,000 between May 2018 and December 2019.

Ibn-Sheikh, one of eight children of Hamza, was jailed for a total of three years and nine months in January.

Appearing via video-link from HMP Highpoint in Suffolk, he confirmed his benefit from the money laundering scheme was £179,413.

But his realisable assets amount to just £5,242.64 and a judge ordered the cash to be confiscated following a brief hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act this week.

Ibn-Sheikh was also jailed for 12 years in 2014 for leading a gang who kidnapped a man and tortured him over a £15,000 debt.

At the time of the money laundering scheme Ibn-Sheikh was on licence following his release from prison. 

Ibn-Sheikh, of Godolphin Road, Shepherd's Bush, west London, admitted two counts of conspiracy to convert criminal property, possession of an article for use in fraud, possession of fraudulent identity documents, and possession of criminal property on the 11 January this year.

Former Finsbury Mosque imam Abu Hamza, 64, is serving life without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of terror offences in both the UK and US.

Another of his sons, Yasser Kamel, 31, was jailed for four years last April after he was caught with cocaine, MDMA and ketamine worth £30,000 at his home.