Shaid Luqman, a British entrepreneur whose wealth has been estimated at around £250 million, was jailed today for 18 months in connection with a multi-million-pound property fraud.

Luqman - a former Young Entrepreneur of the Year who was ranked Britain’s 238th richest person in last year’s Sunday Times Rich List - was found in contempt of court for failure to comply with court orders over his failed business.

Lexi Holdings went into liquidation last October with debts of more than £100 million.

Today a High Court judge said Luqman, 38, did not respond adequately to court orders secured by administrators over his assets and company records.

The court orders, obliging Luqman to surrender accounts and other documents, were issued as part of a wider investigation into what the judge called a “massive alleged commercial fraud”.

The ongoing investigation involves a £120 million loan given to Luqman’s company by Barclays in July 2005. Administrators have alleged that the bulk of this money was subsequently transferred to accounts belonging to members of Luqman’s family in the UK and Pakistan.

When insolvency investigators arrived at the Manchester offices of Lexi Holdings in October 2006, they found the premises had been emptied of virtually all of the company’s books and papers and virtually all of its computers, the court heard.

“They formed the view in the course of their investigations that the removal of the records had occurred as a result of a deliberate strategy of concealment,” the judge said.

He added that a few weeks before Lexi Holdings went into administration, Luqman was disqualified from acting as a director of a company for 15 years, the maximum permitted, in proceedings involving another of his companies, Modern Living UK Ltd.

In making the disqualification order, another High Court judge said Luqman was “completely dishonest”, today's hearing was told.

In 1993 Luqman was convicted on four counts of attempting to obtain property by deception and one count of obtaining property by deception

Philip Marshall, QC, and Ruth Holtham of Serle Court chambers acted for the administrators, KMPG. They were instructed by solicitors DLA Piper.

Luqman was represented by Anthony Elleray, QC, and Giles Maynard-Conner, instructed by Birchall Blackburn.

Explore Law

• Corporate Law

• Public Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Student Law

• Law Reports

Times Recommends

• Are top lawyers worth their huge fees?
• Solicitor forced to retire claims 'ageism'
• Drug case failure may be last straw for SFO