Career crook Tito ibn Sheikh appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court this week.
But his crime — plotting to launder hundreds of thousands of pounds of stolen money for which he was sentenced to nearly four years — was perhaps less shocking than his notorious family background.
He was born Hamza Mustafa Kamel before changing his name to Tito ibn Sheikh, which roughly translated means 'son of a venerable man' in Arabic.
Career crook Tito ibn Sheikh, pictured, appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court this week
This could not be a less appropriate title in the circumstances.
His father — the so-called 'venerable man' — is Abu Hamza, the infamous 'hook-handed' cleric of Finsbury Park mosque who is now serving life without the possibility of parole in the U.S. for terror offences there and in the UK.
Tito ibn Sheikh, as he is now, is one of Abu Hamza's six sons.
Four of them have criminal convictions for offences including terrorism, armed robbery, drug dealing, fraud and burglary, and the remaining two have a track record of Islamic extremism.
Every one of them, in other words, has been a blight on this country.
Between them — and a seventh stepbrother — they have collectively chalked up 40 years in British jails and, along with Abu Hamza, have cost the British taxpayer millions in legal aid, benefits, healthcare and prison stays.
Could there be a more toxic family anywhere in the country, or anyone who has exploited the system more ruthlessly than the Hamzas?
Hate preacher Abu Hamza. In 1979 he arrived in Britain from Egypt and was given indefinite leave to stay after marrying a British woman
This is the real scandal behind the latest conviction of 35-year-old Tito ibn Sheikh.
The money laundering scheme involved opening bank accounts with false identities — with the help of a corrupt HSBC official — to 'wash' £342,000 of 'dirty money' made through thefts and fraud.
At the time, Tito ibn Sheikh was on licence following his release from a 12-year prison term for leading a gang who kidnapped a man and tortured him over a £15,000 debt almost a decade ago.
The victim was knifed, battered with a metal bar and wooden cosh and nearly strangled to death.
'His neck was squeezed so hard he thought his tongue would pop out,' is how the prosecution described a particularly brutal aspect of his three-day ordeal.
Tito ibn Sheikh was also jailed for two-and-a-half years in 2009 for being part of a gang which stole 32 luxury cars worth more than £1 million.
He wore his hair in a ponytail and was dressed in a green prison tracksuit when he appeared in court again this week.
His barrister said that his client had changed his name to distance himself from his father.
'His father has a degree of notoriety which has caused him substantial difficulty and he and other members of his family have changed their names as a result,' the barrister explained in mitigation.
In fact, the case epitomises the 'bad' gene that runs through the Hamza boys.
It was in 1979 that Abu Hamza arrived in Britain from Egypt. He was given indefinite leave to stay after marrying a British woman.
Mostafa was jailed for two years for his part in the scam, along with his brother Tito ibn Sheikh (then still called Hamza Mustafa Kamel) who is now inside for money laundering, and stepbrother Mohssin Ghailam, pictured, (four years)
Few could have possibly imagined the mark he and his as yet unborn sons would leave on the UK.
Hamza had one son with his first wife, Valerie Traverso, and five with his second, Najat Mostafa.
Najat still lives in a Victorian terrace that sits on a quiet gentrified street in Shepherd's Bush, West London, where the Hamzas have been since the mid-1990s.
The bay-fronted property, painted magnolia, with security cameras, either side of the front door, pointing at visitors, is owned by Hammersmith and Fulham council.
The family of Hamza, who was sentenced to seven years for inciting race hate and murder in 2006 and extradited to the U.S. on terrorism charges in 2012, received state handouts, including housing and child benefit, which totalled more than £33,000 a year at one point.
When, shortly afterwards, matriarch Najat was believed to be living there with only two of the couple's brood, the local authority asked her to move to a 'more appropriate' smaller residence.
She was entitled to refuse their request, however, and the council was powerless to evict her as there was no time limit on the tenancy agreement.
Over the years, the property has undergone extensive renovation at the public's expense.
The Taxpayers' Alliance calculated that by the time Abu Hamza was imprisoned in the U.S. he and his brood had cost Britain £2.75 million in welfare payments, council housing, and legal costs.
That figure has now more than tripled.
The Henry Jackson counter-extremist think-tank has estimated that, when the criminal records of his sons have been factored in, the bill this family has inflicted on the British taxpayer will have risen to at least £10 million.
'The public expect that their taxes go to provide services that benefit all of us,' said think tank director of communications Sam Armstrong.
'Instead, all too often it is drained by the likes of the Hamzas who hate and harm this country and exploit every loophole to take what they can.
'In addition to the eye-watering sums the Hamza family has cost the public purse, there are other costs that are less quantifiable, such as the corrosive impact on the community.
'Abu Hamza's crimes were damaging enough, but through his sons he has spawned a new generation of lawlessness.'
Could there be a more egregious catalogue of crimes?
Terrorist
Mohammed Kamel Mostafa, 40 — Hamza's eldest and only son by first wife Valerie Traverso — was 17 when he was accused
