A man who submitted fraudulent documents to the High Court to claim assets worth hundreds of thousands of pounds has been jailed for six years.

Shahrooz Ghassemian, 47, submitted fraudulent payment schedules and false court orders to get money paid into three bank accounts in the name of his mother, after her property was sold as the result of a court order. Following his sentencing last week, City of London Police said it was the first conviction of its kind in the UK.

Ghassemian, of no fixed abode, attempted to claim between £278,000 and £340,000 after he and his mother lost various civil cases against the court-ordered sale of the property. He fraudulently obtained an order in the High Court which allowed he and his mother, who has since died, to unlawfully regain the property and evict the rightful owner.

Between 2017 and 2018, he provided enforcement agents with documents which appeared to be a genuine writ of possession and genuine writ of restitution of a property in Kensington, west London. He later falsified a document purporting to be from a High Court judge saying that the £340,000 proceeds from the sale of his mother’s former property should be paid to her.

Detective Constable Julian Bell, of City of London Police, said: ‘This is the first conviction in the UK for an offence relating to fraudulent documents being submitted to the High Court, and involved a number of High Court judges giving evidence in the case.

‘Ghassemian knew he and his mother had no legal standing with the property but tried to deceive the courts into handing over the money from the court-ordered sale and to unlawfully regain the property. His actions were determined attempts to deceive the High Court.’

Ghassemian, who refused to attend his trial at Isleworth Crown Court while on remand in prison, was found guilty of three counts of carrying out acts tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice.

The property has now been restored to the rightful owner.

His Honour Judge Edmunds QC imposed an indefinite restraining order preventing Ghassemian from contacting the legal owner of his mother’s former property and members of the new owner’s family.