The National Crime Agency has gained possession of a property on Sandmoor Drive, Leeds, following protracted legal proceedings.

The NCA accepted title to the house in 2020, as part of a £10 million civil recovery agreement with a businessman suspected of money laundering offences. 

The recent proceedings related to an interest in the property claimed by Mrs Abigail Katung, a former Labour councillor and the former Lord Mayor of Leeds City Council.

Mrs Katung was not party to the earlier proceedings, but had entered into an agreement with the previous owner to purchase the house in 2015. She paid him approximately £400,000 of the contracted £1m purchase price. The remaining sum was never provided. There is no suggestion that Mrs Katung was aware of the alleged criminality of the former owner.

The case revealed, however, that the vast majority of funds used for Mrs Katung's deposit were routed from Nigeria to the UK via an informal value transfer system she described as a "parallel" or "black" market.

The judge noted that Mrs Katung disclosed very little documentation concerning the transfers into her company's UK bank account and that her husband, Sunday Marshall Katung, a State Senator in Nigeria who was alleged to be the source of the monies routed to the UK, did not provide a witness statement.

The judge described these facts as "telling omissions" from her evidence from which he drew an adverse inference. He did not find Mrs Katung's evidence to be frank and forthcoming and he was also "not satisfied she was a particularly reliable witness". 

In June 2025, the High Court found that Mrs Katung had no legitimate interest in or right to the property, which had been legally transferred to the NCA in October 2020.  

Mrs Katung then sought to appeal the judgement but this was refused, with a judge stating that any appeal would have "no real prospect of success". The NCA obtained a writ of possession in February 2026 which was enforced today.

Rob Burgess, Head of Asset Denial at the NCA, said: "The NCA uses both civil and criminal powers to investigate the provenance of assets in the UK believed to have been acquired using the proceeds of crime.

"This matter has taken a considerable amount of time to litigate – at the tax payer's expense. Now that the NCA has gained possession of the property, it will be sold, with the proceeds being returned to the public purse."

5 March 2026