Fugitive Shaid Luqman launches Pakistan boutique
HE may be a fugitive from British justice and at the centre of one of the North West’s biggest frauds, but it seems to be a case of business as usual for Shaid Luqman.
Luqman, the former boss of Manchester-based Lexi Holdings, the collapsed property company, fled the UK in 2011 while wearing an electroncic tag after being found guily of passport fraud offences.
While an arrest warrant remains in place by the police here, Luqman has recently launched a high-end fashion boutique called La Societe in Lahore, Pakistan.
With publicity for the new venture declaring that Luqman and his business partner have “over 25 years of experience in the UK designer wear market”, such brazen behaviour is likely to further enrage creditors of Lexi Holdings, which include a number of major lenders.
Having laid low for several months after absconding, Luqman’s emergence into Pakistan business community may make it easier for investigators commissioned by administrator KPMG to track him, and Lexi’s missing millions, down.
He has also opened a Facebook account – which shows him posing at his desk behind a model of an aircraft in the image of a successful businessman with the trappings of success.
Shaid Luqman’s younger brother, Waheed, is also said to be in Paksitan. He too is wanted by the police here, having been jailed for seven-and-a-half years in his absence in January this year.
Manchester-based Lexi Holdings went into administration in 2006 with debts of over £100m.
At Waheed’s trial the Serious Fraud Office prosecutors said the Luqman family had defrauded creditors of the company, including Barclays Bank plc, which was the main lender between 2000 to 2006.
