Indian Gets Five Years Jail in UK

An Indian-origin chartered accountant, Sukhwinder Singh (73), has been sentenced to 5 and 1/2 years of imprisonment by a UK court. He was convicted for exploiting assets worth 331,858 pounds of a vulnerable victim.

Singh was sentenced on four counts of fraud and one count of money laundering on Thursday at York Crown Court in northeast England. The court heard that the victim had social, physical, and learning disabilities and was duped by Sukhwinder Singh.

Andrea Thomas, a Senior Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Serious Economic Organised and International Directorate (SEOCID), said that Singh’s actions in diverting property and money for his own gain was a big breach of trust and failed to support and protect the victim.

An investigation by the North Yorkshire Police force revealed that when the victim’s parents had died, Singh had offered to sort out the financial affairs. However, Singh instead took 34,000 pounds from the victim’s bank account and transferred it into his own in September 2016. In the same month, Singh transferred the victim’s home ownership in Harrogate, valued at around 275,000 pounds, to one of his own companies. No money was paid back in return to the victim.

Singh created a number of agreements and letters to initiate the fraud. Some of the documents claimed to be from the victim and those with responsibility for the victim’s affairs, agreeing to transfer them to Singh.