Wife of finance boss who agreed to pay company £500k after 'stealing' £1.1m and spending £160K on escorts is 'left using food banks' after his six-year court fight

A finance boss who spent £160,000 of company money on escorts has left his wife destitute and reliant on food banks after being sued in a six-year court battle, a judge was told.

Dad-of-two Mohammed Asif Khan, 48, was accused of 'stealing' around £1.1million while working for North of England Coachworks – the North East's biggest vehicle bodyshop.

The company accused Khan of splashing £160,000 of the missing cash on high-end prostitutes – including £1,000-an-hour call girl, Gemma Massey, who styled herself as 'Britain's best-paid porn star'.

In 2024, he agreed to hand the company £500,000 to settle the civil claim against him, accepting that he owed the money 'in respect of the frauds... as alleged against him in this action'.

But the company is still fighting to be paid what it is due – amid allegations that Khan may have diverted into businesses owned by his wife Louise Khan, 47.

Mrs Khan was dragged into the case as it returned to court this week, when her lawyers revealed the devastating impact it had inflicted on her life and finances.

Jobless and in 'acute financial difficulty', her barrister Gordon Menzies told a judge that the mother had been left 'having to rely on food banks' by the fallout.

During the civil court trial of the fraud case in 2024, the court heard Khan, of Newcastle, worked for North of England Coachworks until 2019 in a financial and managerial role.

But he was quizzed after serious irregularities with cheque payments and money transfers were noticed, and resigned, the firm's barrister Sam Neaman said.

The lawyer said investigations revealed Khan had been using company cheques and transfers to pay for things that were not for the company's benefit.

The net loss to the company was about £1.1million, he claimed, with an estimated £160,000 of that going to named women, including £56,000 to Ms Massey and her company alone.

'It is not just names, you will see an awful lot of information from the internet which establishes what these ladies did for a profession,' he said. 'She is obviously one of many.'

The court previously heard that Ms Massey – a former dental nurse and beautician – was 'self-described as a high-class escort' on a web page put forward as part of the case, and was later described as a 'prostitute' by Lord Justice Coulson in another hearing.

Ms Massey, an ex of TOWIE star Kirk Norcross, is an Only Fans model and once boasted on the BBC of being the UK's highest paid porn queen.

Defending the claim against him, the married dad admitted his 'shame' after using company money to pay escorts but insisted that he did not do anything his employers did not approve of.

Following several days of the trial, Mr Khan agreed to pay £500,000 to the bodyshop in a judgment against him.

However, the marathon battle has returned to court on several occasions since, as the company continues to fight to recover the money it is due.

During that time, Mr Khan was jailed for six months for contempt of court after pawning a £20,000 Rolex – despite being banned from dealing with it by a freezing injunction. The cash was put into his wife's business.  

This week, it was Mrs Khan at the centre of the row, with lawyers for North of England Coachworks applying for an order against her, allowing the company to investigate what sums of money might have been funnelled into her accounts by her husband.

'We're seeking information as to what assets are held from Mr Khan,' said the company's barrister, Emma Read, telling the court that £23,000 transferred into her accounts was already subject to a freezing order.

'I seek information as to what other assets she holds that are bound by the injunction. We are seeking an order that the second defendant tells us what assets she holds.'

Senior Master Jeremy Cook refused to make the 'information order', asking why the company had not further investigated her husband's accounts to see if he had passed money to her.

'Your allegation is that Mr Khan has been passing funds to Mrs Khan from his accounts or diverting money from his employers' through his accounts into hers,' he put to Ms Read.

'But what have you done to obtain Mr Khan's accounts? Why is there no application against Mr Khan?

'You have not taken the very basic step of going through his bank statements and demonstrating that there was more than the £23,000 which Mrs Khan has already said "yes that was paid to me".

'She accepts that money was bound by the injunction, what more do you want? You have to persuade me there's an arguable case that she has more.'

At the end of the hearing, Master Cook declined the application, saying he had 'no jurisdiction to make the order' against Mrs Khan herself.

He said it was Mr Khan's accounts which the company would have to investigate first before deciding on how to enforce the debt.

Mrs Khan's barrister, Gordon Menzies, asked the judge to order North of England Coachworks to pay her lawyers' bills for the hearing, pointing out that in the aftermath of her husband's court battle she is now unemployed, in 'a state of acute financial difficulty' and 'having to rely on food banks'.

Master Cook ordered the company to foot the bill for the hearing.