£213k bill for man in college swindle

A convicted money launderer who was involved in the Prior Park College scam which conned foreign students out of thousands has been ordered to pay £213,000.

In 2015, a number of foreign nationals were scammed out of their money by criminals pretending to be Prior Park College in Bath.

Now one of the criminals involved, Sanketkumar Patel, 38, of Eden Hall Close, Leicester, has been ordered to pay a large amount in compensation and costs.

The college made a complaint to Bath and North East Somerset Council when it became aware of the scam.

The fake college had been selling places on a business studies course which allowed foreign nationals to apply for visas to study in the UK.

When it was discovered that the college was fake, some of the students were deported or left the country through no fault of their own. Each individual lost between £4,500 and £6,500 on the course fees.

In April this year, Patel was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, for two money laundering offences.

And at Bristol Crown Court on September 20, Judge Horton decided that Patel had benefitted from the proceeds of crime in the amount of £150,000.

The judge ordered Patel to pay that amount to the court within three months or to face threeand-a-half years in jail.

He ordered that £6,500 of that money would be paid to one of the victims.

The court heard Patel had £226,000 in assets including his home, a house he owned as a landlord and £35,000 which was seized from his business premises.

Judge Horton described the investigation by B&NES Council’s trading standards team as “proficient and dedicated” and said it had often been delayed and frustrated by the defendant.

As a result the judge ordered Mr Patel to pay £63,000 in costs to the council.

Although Patel lives in Leicester he ran a money transfer business known as Jay Ambe Trading in Wembley through which the proceeds of crime were laundered.

Bath and North East Somerset Council trading standards were assisted in this wide-ranging and difficult case by the CPS, B&NES Legal Services, Kent Police, Trading Standards South West Regional Enforcement Team, North Somerset Trading Standards, Gloucester County Council Trading Standards and many others.

Cllr Tim Ball, cabinet member for planning and licensing, said: “This was a despicable crime to remove hard-earned money from vulnerable people, so I am very pleased that one of the individuals behind the money laundering has been made to compensate for his offences.

“We will not tolerate scams and frauds and our trading standards team work tirelessly to tackle these serious crimes.

“Thank you to our partners who helped us bring this successful prosecution to court.”