Jailed for ‘green’ fraud
I make no apologies for returning again to the subject of crooks who target the elderly.
This week’s cowardly parasites are cold callers who conned victims into putting their savings into supposed green investments called carbon credits that were worthless.
They traded first as Harman Royce Limited and then as Kendrick Zale Limited, raking in £2.4million from victims mainly aged over 60, and in some cases over 80.
The loot was used to pay commission to the cold callers and buy luxuries including a £33,000 Aston Martin for the ringleaders.
“These fraudsters cruelly targeted often elderly individuals with the intention of defrauding them of their life savings,” said Hayley Wade of the City of London Police’s Fraud Squad.
“They clearly felt no remorse for their actions, closing one company, only to set up another and commit the same offences.”
Sandeep Dosanjh, 30, of Grays, Essex, got four years and six months after admitting conspiracy to defraud. James Lanston, from Greenhithe, Kent, received two years three months. Charanjit Sandhu, 28, also from Grays, got three years and nine months for fraud. Sandhu had already been jailed for nine years for his role in a £2.8million Madeira holiday property investment fraud which I reported on earlier this month. Now the ringleader of that scam has also been jailed. Michael Nascimento got 11 years, plus another two for his part in the carbon credit rip-off. Judge Christopher Hehir, sitting at Southwark crown court in London, described Nascimento’s targeting of the elderly as “particularly repellent”. He added that the evidence heard in court of “life-shattering losses” suffered by some victims were “positively heartbreaking”. “Despicable was not too strong a word” to describe the gang’s tactics, the judge said. The Financial Conduct Authority is seeking compensation for the victims out of the criminals’ assets.
TIME TO GET TOUGH ON ELDER CRIME