A MAN who was wrongly convicted of taking part in a multi-million pound fraud when he was unfit to stand trial has had his name cleared by top judges.

Brain-damaged Mohammed Zulfiqar Sharif, 40, of Whalley Range, Blackburn, was put before a jury in 1999, accused of involvement in an elaborate scheme to swindle £2.8million in compensation and benefits, orchestrated by his father.

A jury at Preston Crown Court found him guilty of conspiracy to defraud in March 1999, and he was jailed for three years.

The Court of Criminal Appeal in London yesterday heard the prison term has long since been served, but accepted that expert medical evidence now showed he was “unfit to plead” and should not have stood trial.

Lord Justice Maurice Kay, sitting with Mr Justice Calvert Smith and Mr Justice Cranston, said it all started when Zulfiqar, then 15, was attacked in his family's store, in Blackburn, in November 1985 and suffered severe head injuries.

The court heard in June 1986, his father, Mohammed Sharif, launched a claim with the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and, after a series of hearings, interim payments were made.

Between 1994 and 1996 Mohammed Sharif and others, including Zulfiqar, were being investigated by the police “on suspicion of large-scale insurance fraud”.

The judge said: “Mohammed Sharif had made a number of insurance claims on grounds that members of his family were injured in road traffic accidents.”

Family members were arrested in October 1996 and 10 of them, including Zulfiqar and his father, were later convicted of conspiring to defraud insurance companies, the Department of Social Security and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board.