Sandwell Muslim Organisation

My Muslim friends in Sandwell tell me that there is still simmering discontent within the local community about the circumstances surrounding the demise of the Sandwell Muslim Organisation (SMO) in which Cllr Mahboob Hussain was such a leading light. Not to mention other Labour luminaries like Shaukat Ali and, of course, our dear old friend, Mohammad Rouf.

Tireless voluntary worker and the Sage of Smethwick
(A familiar figure right behind.....)

The curious story of the SMO's ownership of their large property opposite The Oldbury Kremlin was set out in my blog post of 17th October, 2014:

http://thesandwellskidder.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people.html

but let us have a quick look at the salient facts again in the light of a partial response to a Freedom of Information Act request which I made on behalf of concerned locals.

On 20th October, 2003 the Birmingham Evening Mail reported that there were problems with the SMO which was receiving large amounts of cash from Labour Sandwell. In particular, the Committee were operating as a "closed shop". The Chief Executive of the time, Nigel Summers, launched "an inquiry" (where have we heard that one before eh, readers?)

In the true, incompetent, style of Sandwell Labour this was shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted since just two months beforehand, and apparently without any due diligence, the crafty comrades has conveyed the large double property at 33/35 Birmingham Road, Oldbury on 13th August, 2003 to (1) Abdul Fazal Hussain (apparently no close relation to Oldbury's most celebrated amnesiac) and (2) Mohammed Azad.

It is now Autumn 2015 and the shifty sh*ts are STILL refusing under a Freedom of Information request to say how much the taxpayer actually received for these two large properties in 2003! All that they will say is that they obtained an "open market value" decided by a "qualified surveyor". Unfortunately, this property expert was employed by, er, Sandwell Council!

The price would have been less than an open market value since Labour thoughtfully protected the taxpayer by insisting on a restrictive covenant preventing SMO from selling other than to another charity for 25 years......

Happily taxpayers, in early 2004 Mr Summers was able to announce that he had only discovered "minor irregularities" at SMO and our money kept on flowing. Almost immediately, SMO started negotiations to change the terms of the restrictive covenant to get a better deal.

Much of what we know then is shown in the blog post mentioned above but suffice to say here that only weeks later SMBC were starting a new, er, investigation into the charity and by Autumn 2005 it had collapsed with much anger and recrimination. It is not clear what happened to Mohammad Azad but it appears that in 2007 Abdul Fazal Hussain had become sole owner of the property at HM Land Registry.

In my earlier post, I mentioned the mystery surrounding the date of Mr Hussain's subsequent planning application in 2012 and this is what I said then:

"Another oddity is that the declarations on the application are signed 7th June, 2012, as was the separate fee form, but the application was allegedly not received by Sandwell Council until 17th September. Someone, somewhere, appears to have been waiting for something to happen....."

The problem, of course, was that the properties were still subject to the restrictive covenant. But now Mr Bubalo himself, no less, has confirmed that "consultations" took place between "officers in Legal Services and Property Services" at the request of Mr A. F. Hussain in JULY, 2012. It won't surprise you to note, readers, that Mr A. F. Hussain got the mine and, as usual with Sandwell Labour, the people of the Borough got the shaft! The "officers in Legal Services and Property Services" had apparently decided that their predecessors in 2003 had f*cked the whole thing up and, in fact, the restrictive covenant was UNENFORCEABLE! Thus Sandwell Labour would not seek any payment whatsoever from Mr Hussain for the increase in value of the property without the covenant. Accordingly the taxpayer would fund Sandwell Council's preparation of a Deed to remove the covenant (ie to prepare a legal document to say that it was, er, unenforceable!) but Mr A. F. Hussain graciously agreed to pay his own legal costs.

In went the planning application which was quickly granted by Mr Bubalo who insists that the planning application "had no bearing on the matter" of the covenant which is odd as the application had clearly been delayed until the Council had decided to remove it. The Deed was executed saying the unenforceable covenant was "released" on 12th Octover, 2012 and the property was duly sold and then converted into six flats.

No reason has been given by the cunning comrades why the Council's own covenant was deemed to be "unenforceable".

It is not known whether Mr A. F. Hussain has distributed any sale proceeds to Muslim causes and I shall be pleased to hear from him in this regard. Meanwhile, Councillor Rouf has moved on to become a trustee of the Smethwick Pakistani Muslim Association (incidentally, Sandwell Labour are STILL refusing to say how much they sold the plot at Florence Road for to his son even though they confirm that the property was finally conveyed on 30th March, 2015. Rouf's son has avoided the information being publicly available by the simple expedient of failing to register the property at HM Land Registry - as of last week).

An SMBC insider told be that the removal of covenants was on the cards elsewhere and I have already referred in this blog to the huge piece of land sold subject to covenant to Tipton Mosque for just £25,000! Let us hope the covenant there is not also "unenforceable"...... The Labour jokers tried to do the same thing with a huge piece of land in central West Bromwich going to the Dartmouth Street Mosque until The Skidder exposed this nonsense. However, another insider has told me of "the big one" where a very senior SMBC officer has allegedly told staff nothing will happen on the particular piece of land until everything has died down after the fraud investigation. Of course, that is just scurrilous gossip and cannot possibly be true........

Don't forget to keep voting Labour for more of this y'all!

Remember the police Regional Fraud Team investigation is still ongoing and DS Wayne Haynes and his team are still anxious to hear from you if you have information about possible fraud and corruption at Sandwell Council - 0121 251 2175.

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