COUNCIL AND CANCER CHARITY WERE HIT BY WOMEN’S £42K FRAUD
PAIR GUILTY OF SETTING UP ‘GHOST WORKER’ SCAM
TWO women set up a profile for a fake staff member at a borough council - and then pocketed over £38,900 in wages.
Kalvinder Garcha and Lynn Middleton, pictured, went on to use the same tactic to defraud a cancer charity out of £3,675.
A PAIR of council employees who cooked up a ghost worker scam to con £42,000 out of a council and cancer charity have been convicted of money laundering and fraud.
Qualified solicitor Kalvinder Garcha, who worked as head of corporate resources at Oadby and Wigston Borough Council, and Lynn Middleton, an advisor and administrator in the council’s HR department, used their positions to set up a fake profile for Middleton’s sister, Sharon Reeve, as an employee of the authority.
Reeve, who lives in Spain and is married to a wealthy businessman, was then given a wage by the borough council for two years, totalling £38,902 - even though she was not actually doing any work.
Garcha and Middleton were also members of the board at the Coping with Cancer charity and decided to pull a similar scam, setting Reeve up as a fake “consultant” for the charity, for which she was paid a total of £3,675.
Reeve did not keep any of the money herself and it was all passed to Middleton, who then gave Garcha a share of their ill-gotten gains.
Leicester Crown Court had previously heard both Garcha, 50, from Carisbrooke Road, Leicester and Middleton, 49, of Arbor Road, Croft, told colleagues Reeve was a home worker to explain away her absence and carried out extra work themselves in a bid to cover up their scam.
Middleton pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering and two counts of fraud at an earlier hearing and became a prosecution witness.
Reeve went to trial, but pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to money launder two weeks into it.
Garcha has now been found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and two counts of money laundering after a trial at Leicester Crown Court.
All three are to be sentenced at crown court on Friday, October 1.
Middleton had told the court that the borough council was restructured in 2012, with redun
dancies in the department, which left her with an overwhelming workload that Garcha also helped out with, but they were not paid for the extra work.
She said Garcha asked her to find someone to help out in a “low key” way, because those made redundant might take action against the council if a new recruit was known to have been employed to help cover the workload.
Middleton said Garcha then met her sister after giving her a lift to Reeve’s rented holiday lodge in Foxton Locks in July 2012.
The court was told Garcha then suggested using Reeve as a “ghost worker” as payback for the unpaid overtime Middleton had worked.
Middleton said her sister had gone along with the scam as a way of “helping her out”, because she was working part-time and needed money for nursery fees.
Following the case, Detective Sergeant Matt Swift said: “This has been a lengthy and complex investigation spanning more than four years.
“We are pleased that this case has now, after many years, come to a successful conclusion and we’d like to thank Oadby and Wigston Council and Coping with Cancer for their support and cooperation throughout the past few years.
“Middleton did the right thing earlier in the legal process and admitted her involvement in these offences and also agreed to assist the prosecution.
“We hope this outcome reassures organisations who are there to serve our communities that we will pursue any reports of wrongdoing, no matter where they happen or by whom.”
Bill Richmond, Chairman of Sue Young Cancer Support, the new name for Coping with Cancer, said: “We are grateful for today’s guilty verdict which draws a line in the sand after a very difficult time for the charity while the police investigation was underway.
“We have supported cancer patients and their families across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland for 40 years during what is often the most difficult time of their lives, and will continue to do so.
“We thank Leicestershire Police for their diligence and persistence in bringing these three individuals to justice.
“We now look forward to moving on to doing what we do best; providing vital services to ensure that the people who need us get the very best help that they fully deserve.”