Millionaire landlady jailed for modern slavery pays victim £200k

A millionaire landlady who was jailed for keeping a vulnerable woman in domestic servitude has had to sell a property to pay her victim almost £200,000.

Farzana Kausar, who turns 60 next month, was jailed for six years and eight months in December 2022 at Lewes Crown Court by Judge Christine Laing, the honorary recorder of Brighton and Hove.

A jury found Kausar guilty of holding a person in slavery or servitude and perverting the course of justice.

After her sentence, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) took Kausar back to court to seek a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

This forces criminals to hand over available money and assets up to their total criminal benefit or face the possibility of spending more years in prison for non-payment.

On Friday 13 October last year, Kausar was ordered to pay more than £205,000 or face an additional 30-month prison sentence.

The confiscation order has now been paid in full.

The court imposed a “slavery and trafficking reparation order” which means that £198,776 paid as a result of the confiscation order will go to the victim.

This amount includes benefit money that Kauser took from her victim, along with unpaid wages owed to her from her time in servitude.

Kausar, lived in Adelaide Crescent, Hove, and Selden Road, Worthing, and punched, kicked and verbally abused Jacqueline Whittington, 61, keeping her in slavery to cook, clean and look after her family.

Kausar, who also had property in London, had known Mrs Whittington since the early 1990s, telling her initially that she was like a sister.

But Kausar, also known as Fuzana Khan, kept Mrs Whittington in “domestic servitude” for years, controlling much of what she did.

She even tried to persuade Mrs Whittington to have the case dropped, resulting in the charge of trying to pervert justice

Adrian Foster, head of the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said: “Millionaire Farzana Kausar subjected a vulnerable woman to a campaign of abuse and took complete control over her life, stripping her of her freedom over 16 years and exploiting her for her own profit.

“We robustly pursued Kausar for her criminal benefit and I hope these reparations can go some way to compensate the victim.

“This case shows that even when criminals are convicted and sentenced, the CPS will continue to pursue them for the money they owe.

“By going after the proceeds of crime, we can deprive criminals of their ill-gotten gains and take the profit out of offending.”

The CPS said: “Kausar took full control of the victim’s passport and finances and would withdraw money from bank accounts she had opened in the victim’s name. She also made benefit claims on the victim’s behalf, which she kept for herself.

“In May 2019, Kausar was arrested by Sussex Police on suspicion of ‘modern slavery’ offences and released on conditional bail.

“Kausar then set out to pervert the course of justice by trying to get the victim to drop the charges.

“In an attempt to cover up her crimes, Kausar forced the victim to write a letter to the police asking for the charges to be withdrawn.

“In the past five years, 2019-24, nearly £450 million has been recovered from CPS obtained confiscation orders, ensuring that thousands of convicted criminals cannot profit from their offending. £88 million of that amount has been returned to victims of crime, by way of compensation.”