Innocent drivers were handed fines after father forged forms
A‘‘FAILING’’ businessman forged more than a dozen speeding forms in return for cash, leading to innocent drivers being fined, a court heard.
Greedy Ajit Singh Takhar received hundreds of pounds a time for dealing with other motorists’ Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) forms and reassuring them they would “simply go away”.
But expert handwriting analysts were able to catch Takhar, who also stole a £150 Apple TV box whilst working as a delivery driver.
Takhar, 38, of Great Barr, admitted 13 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of theft. He was jailed for 28 months at Birmingham Crown Court. He was also disqualified from driving for four years and two months.
Judge Peter Carr said: “When the Notice of Intended Prosecution was sent to the motorist it was handed to you. You forged that document and returned it. On two occasions it resulted in real persons being prosecuted and convicted, one of whom is yet to be able to persuade the court otherwise.
“Considerable resources were expended following up false information. You committed the offences not because you were misguided, but for greed.”
Tariq Shakoor, prosecuting, said Tahkar ran the speeding ticket racket for more than two years, between April 2015 and November 2017.
On a number of occasions he dealt with fines for family friend Danny Griffin, a man in his 40s and from Great Barr, who was jailed in November 2018 for 20 months after admitting four counts of perverting the course of justice.
In other incidents he forged forms for his own father and on one occasion for himself when he had broken the speed limit.
Two motorists were wrongfully convicted and fined in their absence in court after Takhar gave their details. In another incident, a ‘James McDonald’ was penalised and hit with a £811 fine in court, even though he was a figment of Takhar’s imagination.
Many of the filled-in forms claimed the vehicles were being hired by someone else at the time they were caught speeding. Police caught up with one driver who admitted paying Takhar £500 for the NIP form to “simply go away”, said Mr Shakoor.
The theft took place in Leicester on November 16, 2017. Whilst working as a delivery driver for Crouch Logistics, Takhar left the depot around 11am and then went ‘off-route’ towards Rugby where he met someone else and handed over an Apple TV box. However, he was observed by an undercover employee and arrested.
Oliver Woolhouse, defending, told the court that Takhar stopped his offending of his own accord in 2017, several months before police arrested him. He also said that he had “made significant attempts to turn his life around” since then and played a “significant role” in looking after his children while his ex-wife trains to be a midwife.
He added: “At that stage, between 2015 and 2017, he was basically in ruins.
“He had failed businesses or failing businesses under mounting debts and his marriage was in crisis.
“He clearly did not recognise the seriousness of this offending.”