A property businessman who breached a director disqualification order for over a decade has been jailed for four years after orchestrating an elaborate scheme to move £3 million out of reach of his creditors just weeks before his assets were due to be liquidated.
Tariq Sarwar, 59, of Gore Lane in Alderley Edge, was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on 12 June 2026 for fraud anticipating winding-up and two counts of acting in contravention of a disqualification order. His co-defendant, Christopher Francis, 40, of Peacock Lane, Aylesbury, received a 25-month sentence suspended for two years, plus 250 hours of unpaid work, after pleading guilty to money laundering.
For debt collection professionals, the case is a textbook example of how determined debtors use family fronts, layered company structures, and rapid asset transfers to frustrate recovery — and a reminder of how insolvency investigators can unpick even the most sophisticated arrangements.
A Disqualification Order, Flagrantly Ignored
Sarwar was hit with a Director Disqualification Order in 2013. These orders ban individuals from acting as company directors or having any involvement in management. Yet, in that very same year, Sarwar set up two further property management companies — A Property Management and Willowloch — in his wife Zarka’s name.
Prosecution barrister Laura Kenyon told the court that Sarwar not only installed his wife and son, Mohammed Adil, as directors and sole shareholders — the latter when he had recently turned 18 — but had Zarka sign for and personally guarantee multiple high-value loans, using the businesses and properties as collateral.
When one lender became aware of the disqualification order, they were met with assurances that Sarwar and his wife were ‘estranged’ and that he was not involved in the businesses. The reality was very different.
“He was running the day to day business, attending meetings, arranging insurance, dropping off paperwork,” Ms Kenyon told the court. “He persistently and cynically used his wife and son as a front for these activities.”
Building the Debt, Then Moving the Money
The companies acquired significant assets, including Langley Mill Business Park in Salford for £1.5 million in 2014, and the old police station on Lee Street in Stockport, purchased for £630,000 and mortgaged with a £600,000 loan. More loans and ‘large-scale refinancing’ followed, including a £945,000 loan in January 2019 secured against the assets of TNS Properties, another company of which Zarka was sole director.
By this stage, Sarwar’s companies owed substantial debts to creditors, including £134,000 to HMRC. HMRC began a winding-up petition in March 2018. Just three months later, Langley Mill Business Park sold for £5.1 million.
Some creditors were paid off, apart from HMRC and one of Sarwar’s business partners, who were collectively still owed around £500,000.
Here is where the recovery picture turned sour. Within nine days of the sale, Sarwar instructed his solicitors to transfer over £3 million to food and drink wholesaler KYCA — so that ‘there were no assets left’ by the time the winding-up was complete in July.
Following the Money Trail
Francis, KYCA’s sole director, was then instructed by Sarwar to make ‘significant’ transfers to a total of six other companies, including around £645,000 to companies ‘clearly linked’ to the Sarwar family, including TNS Properties and NEL Holdings, prosecutors said.
A further £748,980 passed through a series of other companies before ultimately finding its way back to Sarwar’s own family business, according to the Insolvency Service, which investigated the case.
At interview, Sarwar denied acting as director and claimed to have been acting under instruction. Francis had himself been disqualified as a company director for six years in 2021 after failing to provide accounting records for his business.
“Two days before he was due to have an interview with HMRC, he reported his vehicle as stolen,” Ms Kenyon said. “It was later found burnt out, a highly convenient fire in which all his account records were lost.”
Partial Recovery for Creditors
The £3 million was later declared void by HMRC, whose liquidators formally sued Zarka Sarwar and settled for a £280,000 payment. Sarwar was also sued by a creditor and forced to pay back £200,000.
The Insolvency Service confirmed HMRC were eventually fully repaid, while other creditors received a limited return on what they were owed, with investigations underway to confiscate remaining funds. For recovery teams, it is a familiar outcome — partial recompense after a long and resource-intensive fight.
Mitigation Rejected
Both defendants initially pleaded not guilty in January 2023. Sarwar later changed his plea to guilty this year, while Francis pleaded guilty to money laundering on the fourth day of his trial.
Mitigating for Francis, barrister Thomas Schofield KC said his client had ‘not been aware’ of the winding-up petition and ‘didn’t know’ that the money transferred to him was criminal. “He has a wife and four children and expresses bitter remorse at his offending,” his lawyer said. “He is employed and wishes to start contributing to society again. He deserves to be punished but in the community.”
Andrew Horsell made a similar plea for Sarwar, saying he had ‘dragged himself up by his bootstraps and made something of himself’ to support his family, including his wife, who was said to suffer health issues.
“He is somewhat of a precarious position with debts, and could lose his family home,” Mr Horsell said. “I submit that public humiliation of unpaid work would be enough. It is difficult to imagine a further fall from grace.”
The Judge’s Verdict
Presiding judge Peter Horgan rejected this assertion, jailing Sarwar for four years, of which he is expected to serve 40 percent.
“You were very experienced and successful businessman and knew exactly what you should not be doing,” he told Sarwar. “These were sophisticated arrangements which you then took active steps to distance yourself from.
“You demonstrated a real arrogance, believing you could do whatever you wanted and choosing to ignore the order, not following rules or listening to advice.”
Handing Francis his suspended sentence, the judge added: “This sentence should hang over your head for that time. Money laundering is a serious part of criminal activity. If you commit any offence in that time you will be back in front of me, do you understand?”
