Playboy son of clothing tycoon used family fortune to fund arms racket

Even his relatives regarded him as a dutiful son with an arranged marriage, who held down a job in his millionaire family's respectable retail clothing business.

But Akhtar's image of Asian middleclass respectability was a facade.

Kaleem Akhtar, centre, poses with a pistol in his trousers and flanked by two men carrying AK47 assault rifles

A  court has heard that the 29-year-old was a key figure in a gun-running network which supplied 'assassin armouries' to gangland hitmen across the UK.

His secret activities  -  also funded by £1,000 a month in state benefits  -  helped rebuild the arsenals of some of Britain's most violent gangs.

Seduced by the thrill and glamour of the underworld, Akhtar lived a double life. Known as 'Big K', he had two secret mistresses and behaved like a mobster, hanging out in nightclubs and arrogantly posing for photos with weapons.

In one picture, seen here, he stands with a handgun stuffed into his trousers, flanked by two men brandishing assault rifles.

Akhtar was behind bars awaiting sentence after being found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of gun-running for gangsters.

The successful police operation ended with the seizure of a substantial haul of weapons. Officers believe they have saved many lives by exposing Akhtar and his associates.

Gun runners: Kaleem Akhtar (left) and Asaid Saleem

Akhtar arrived in Britain from Pakistan at the age of three. His family ran a chain of shops in Liverpool and a wholesale business in Manchester.

He had 'everything money could buy' but chose to sell 'assassin kits' of a handgun, silencer and bullets to criminals for £2,500.

While he was peddling handguns, ammunition, silencers and other firearms, Akhtar returned home to his wife and the £350,000 marble-floored semi in Chorlton, Manchester, which his parents gave them as a wedding present.

Akhtar counted doctors and politicians among his friends.

He flaunted his family's wealth, driving around the respectable suburban neighbourhood in a £50,000 Range Rover and dripping with gold jewellery.

The house in Chorlton, Manchester his parents gave him as a wedding gift

Although many neighbours may have regarded him as arrogant and distasteful, no one realised how evil he was.

All the weapons were Russian-made Baikal self-loading gas handguns, converted to fire real bullets by a gunsmith based in Lithuania.

They were sold by Akhtar to gangsters who then used them in a string of gun battles between rival underworld gangs in Manchester and Yorkshire.

A member of Manchester's infamous Gooch Close mob was caught in possession of one of Akhtar's guns after being named as prime suspect in the unsolved murder of schoolboy Jesse James, 15, in September 2006.

The weapons were also used in a £90,000 armed robbery on a security van in which a guard was held at gunpoint and sprayed with petrol.

An undated picture of one of the weapons seized by police

In total, 56 guns and 856 bullets supplied by the gang, and bought from two Lithuanian dealers in Essex, were seized during raids by police in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Scotland.

Nick Clarke QC, prosecuting, told the court: 'Overall, this operation uncovered the largest network of illegally held weapons ever seen in this country and included the second largest single seizure of firearms in Greater Manchester.'

That particular raid, in May last year, netted 13 guns with silencers, 379 bullets and a bulletproof vest. Yet within 24 hours Akhtar and the gang had arranged for another consignment to sell on.

The guns were brought north in batches from Essex by Lithuanian brothers Agnus and Edgaras Malcevas to be sold to Akhtar's accomplice and gang 'linchpin' Mudasser Ali, 30.

They were repackaged and sold on by Akhtar and others.

Police had the gang under surveillance by January 2007 in an operation codenamed Tumbler. Over the next nine months officers carried out a series of raids to seize the Baikal guns and arrest those involved.

In July, armed officers swooped on the Lithuanian brothers as they drove to Manchester in their BMW and found guns, silencers and bullets in a sports bag.

The court heard Akhtar's fingerprints were found on a drawstring bag containing a pistol, hidden under the passenger seat of a car they stopped on the M62.

When Akhtar was finally arrested last September, they found £50,000, a bulletproof vest and an incriminatingletter from an accomplice in prison.

He showed no emotion yesterday as he was found guilty of conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to enable another to endanger life after a two-week trial.

In his defence, his barrister Dorian Lovell-Pank QC said his client was a 'night owl' but told the jury there was insufficient evidence to conclude he was a gun-runner.

Adjourning sentencing for reports, Judge Clement Goldstone warned Akhtar: 'You will receive a very substantial sentence indeed.'

Ali, of Bradford, both Malcevas brothers, Asaid Salim, of Trafford, Manchester, Michael Peake, of Liverpool, and cage fighter Paul Wilson, of Southport, have already pleaded guilty to either conspiracy to possess firearms or other firearms offences. They all await sentence.

Outside court, Detective Inspector Chris Packer of Greater Manchester Police said Akhtar and his 'stooges' were 'driven by greed and criminal status, and did not care about what these guns can do'.

'The removal of these men from the streets, not to mention all the guns and ammunition, is a brilliant result and one that without a doubt has made us all safer,' he said.