A west London barber was convicted at Kingston Crown Court yesterday afternoon for sending thousands of pounds to Islamic State fighters in Syria after claiming COVID grant payments.

Tarek Namouz, 43, from Hammersmith, who had received the bounce bank loans to help his business, Boss Crew Barbers, during the pandemic, has been jailed for 12 years.

Namouz exchanged messages with a Daesh supporter in Syria, in which they talked about purchasing weapons and explosives to use against the Syrian government forces.

He was arrested in May 2021 in a pre-planned operation by counter terrorism officers who discovered an excess of £11,280 had been sent to his contact in Syria over a number of months.

In passing sentence, HHJ Lodder KC said: "In 2020 and 2021, you ran a barbers shop in Hammersmith. You were entitled to Covid bounce-back loans which were paid to you by the local council. You sent that money, and other money, through a west London transfer and currency exchange, to terrorists in Syria."

Namouz lived in a third-floor flat above his business Boss Crew Barbers in Hammersmith (Credit: Google Maps)

Commander Richard Smith, who leads the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said:"Terrorist groups rely on funding to carry out their activities and to continue to operate.

"People like Namouz who provide money to terrorist groups - both in the UK and overseas - are enabling others to go and commit serious and deadly attacks, and we will always pursue and investigate those people and seek to bring them to justice."

Namouz sent the money via a money transfer bureau in west London. Detectives found records of transactions totalling £11,280.

However, whilst on remand, he was recorded telling a visitor who had come to see him in prison that he had sent more than double that amount – around £25,000.

When officers visited Namouz's flat to arrest him on 25 May 2021, he told officers he didn't have a phone. But during the search, detectives found one hidden in a recess under a drawer.

It was on this phone that officers found Daesh propaganda material consisting of thousands of messages, and documents which he had downloaded from Telegram. This also included two videos - one which gave instructions on how to create an improvised explosive device, and another detailing how to carry out knife attacks.

Namouz was found guilty of eight counts of funding terrorism (contrary to Section ), and two counts of possessing information likely to be useful for terrorism (contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000) at Kingston Crown Court on 8 December 2022.

The former barber had previously been released from prison after serving half of a 10-year sentence for rape for attacking a woman half his age in north London pub, The Prince, where he was the landlord.