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Fugitive Scammer Claims Free NHS Care After 16 Years
8 Jan
Summary
- Businessman convicted of £3m fake Viagra scam fled to Pakistan.
- He returned after 16 years on the run to claim NHS care and benefits.
- He still owes over £3.2 million in confiscated criminal profits.
Zahid Mirza, a businessman convicted for his role in a £3 million fake Viagra scam, has returned to the UK after 16 years on the run. He fled to Pakistan before his 2007 sentencing for selling counterfeit medicines but returned in 2023 due to deteriorating health. Currently residing in a taxpayer-funded care home in Ilford, East London, Mirza is receiving Universal Credit and NHS care, including being on the waiting list for dialysis.
Mirza was originally ordered to pay back £1.8 million in illicit profits, but still owes over £3.2 million including interest. His appeal to set aside the confiscation order was dismissed by a High Court judge who found him an unreliable witness and suspected assets were hidden.
The counterfeit operation involved manufacturing fake Viagra and Cialis in Asia and selling them online. The scheme spanned the UK, America, the Bahamas, and Mexico, with carefully forged packaging making the fake products difficult to distinguish from the genuine ones.
