Punjab-origin man jailed for fraud in UK
Wednesday, 08/05/2019
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LONDON: Essex-based Taminder Virdi is among three individuals sentenced to jail after defrauding elderly bank customers of more than £390,000 and laundering cash through multiple fake accounts, officials said Tuesday.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Virdi, 33, and Abubakar Salim, 36, both employed at the same TSB branch in Stoke Newington in 2014, transferred funds out of customer accounts into 65 fraudulent beneficiary accounts that they opened. The accounts were controlled by accountant Babar Hussain, 40.
NCA officers were alerted when one of the eight victims (all in their 70s) reported that £56,000 had been transferred out of their account without consent. That money went into seven different beneficiary accounts.
When Hussain was arrested in July 2016, officers recovered a number of fraudulently obtained genuine driving licenses, which Virdi and Salim used, along with fake gas and electric bills, to open the beneficiary accounts.
Hussain said he opened and managed bank accounts of those new to UK with no fixed address.
Virdi was arrested in November 2016 and Salim in May 2017. At the time of Virdi’s arrest, he had left TSB having resigned following an internal investigation into his activities. Investigations found Virdi continued to be an offender. Virdi and Salim were found guilty following a six-week trial at Blackfriars Crown Court and were sentenced to three years, six months and four years.
