An ‘investment broker’ who scammed people across the country has been ordered to pay £391,680 – or face four years extra in prison if he fails to pay.
Charanjit Sandhu pleaded guilty to running a number of scams across the UK and conning people out of just over £1.7m ($2.36m, €2m), according to the Crown Prosection Service (CPS).
Sandhu used the money to fund his “lavish lifestyle”, with “evidence of spending on luxury holiday villa rental, watches and jewellery, designer clothing and over £9,000 of dental work”.
The CPS worked in conjunction with Thames Valley Police and City of London Police to secure a confiscation order for the defendant to pay back victims through the liquidation of his available assets.
The sum, determined by a judge, was set at £391,680.
The CPS said: “The defendant attempted to stash some of his assets away, but the CPS and investigation teams uncovered hidden assets of £200,000 which he now has to pay back as part of the available assets figures.”
These include a rose gold Patek Phillipe watch valued at £72,000, an Audemars Piguet watch valued at £22,000, and a Rolex valued at £4,000.
High-pressure sales tactics
Claire Bennett, solicitor at the CPS, said: “Sandhu was pernicious, cruel and callous criminal who was the ringleader in an operation in which often vulnerable and elderly victims were targeted mercilessly, through relentless cold calling and high-pressure sales tactics.
“There was evidence that some vulnerable victims were targeted more than once.
“Where we can take money from people who have profited from crime, we will not hesitate to do so. In 2019/20, the CPS recovered over £100m, stopping hundreds of criminals benefitting from their ill-gotten gains.”
Pleading guilty
On 20 December 2017, Sandhu pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud in respect of the sale of carbon credits through Harman Royce and Kendrick Zale in a City of London Police investigation. He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for each of those offences, to be served concurrently.
The separate Kent and Thames Valley investigations concerned an investment fraud committed against largely elderly victims.
The CPS said that Sandhu was the “ringleader in respect of the Thames Valley and Kent offending”.
He pleaded guilty on 9 February 2018 to one count of conspiracy to defraud. He ultimately received a sentence of 3.5 years imprisonment in respect of this offence, to be served concurrent to the sentences on the other operations.
In relation to a further separate Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) case, Sandhu was convicted of a number of counts of conspiracy to defraud and three counts of communicating an invitation to engage in an investment activity which involved a fraudulent share sale scheme, on 11 December 2017.
