Two conmen jailed for a total of 20 years for running Britain’s biggest ever mortgage fraud have been ordered to pay back more than £30 million within six months, or spend a further 16 years behind bars.

Saghir Afzal, 50, fleeced mortgage lenders out of over £49 million by buying cheap properties and paying crooked chartered surveyor Ian McGarry, 43, to provide false valuations.

Last week, Afzal and McGarry were ordered to pay back a total of £30,826,013.86 in one of the largest confiscation orders ever made in the UK or have their sentences increased by a further 16 years.

In June 2011, they were jailed for 13 years and seven years respectively after admitting their role in the £50 million deception.

Between 2004 and 2006 companies controlled by Birmingham-based fraudster Afzal and his brother Nisar, 54, bought six commercial properties for just £5,688,125.

McGarry, a director at Dunlop Haywards Lorenz, then provided false valuations in order for the Afzals to deceive lenders into lending £49,287,000.

An SFO press release at the time described how McGarry valued a property at £19 million that had been purchased for just over £1 million, representing an overvaluation of 1,800 per cent. 

On another occasion, he produced three different valuations of the same property on the same day for three separate financial institutions.

The Afzal brothers - who sent £26 million to Pakistan - bribed McGarry with lavish overseas holidays in Dubai, an Aston Martin car, cash in brown paper envelopes, and the purchase of three properties in London – two in Monument and one in Barnsbury, North London - valued collectively at £1.126 million.

Afzal continues to deny involvement in the scam and refused to take part in proceedings at Southwark Crown Court last Thursday.

Judge Beddoe said: “He informs me that he was wholly unaware of the fraud and he was the dupe of two men”, and as a result he had ‘simply no idea’ where the bulk of the money has gone.

Handing down one of biggest confiscation orders in history, Judge Beddoe added: “By me trying to determine what he now has available to him is really trying to pin the tail on the donkey, for all I know Mr Afzal now, as a result of good investment, has assets worth £60 million.

“But, on the basis he shared the profit of this fraud [with his brother] I have to conclude that that is unlikely.”

The court heard Afzal’s assets are believed to include property in Birmingham, Pakistan, the US, and Spain, and the £26 million that was sent to Pakistan.

The court was also told that after McGarry’s arrest he had attempted to hide large chunks of his criminal earnings.

Judge Beddoe said McGarry’s benefit was £2,792,401.29, but stated that the realisable assets were just over £1.5 million.

Jailing Saghir Afzal and McGarry last summer, Judge Beddoe described the fraud as a “massive and carefully orchestrated confidence trick”.

Prosecutor Baillie said Nisar Afzal had the “productive entrepreneurial role”, while Saghir was involved in the “day-to-day management of banking and other financial matters”.

Afzal and McGarry admitted two charges of conspiracy to obtain money transfers by deception and four counts of obtaining money transfers by deception.

Nisar Afzal is thought to be in Pakistan and is still wanted by the SFO for his alleged role in the fraud.

Judge Martin Beddoe ordered that Saghir Afzal pay back £29,276,565.91 within six months or face another ten years in jail.

McGarry was told he must pay back £1,549,447.95 within six months or spend another six years behind bars.