Private Sector

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has released an update on its investigation into property developer the Signature Group.

Last week the agency announced it had raided three residences in Merseyside and Greater Manchester in connection with a suspected £140m fraud involving 1,000 investors linked to the company.

Former detectives have been brought in to investigate the role of the fraud squad, described as the “untouchables”, who interrogated and prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters during the Horizon scandal.

A team led by Gary Brooks, a former head of major crime at Lancashire Constabulary, has begun interviewing some of those who allege they were bullied and intimidated by Post Office investigators.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/post-office-hires-ex-police-detectives-to-review-role-of-untouchable-investigators/ar-BB1iRmd3?ocid=socialshare

Four people have been arrested as part of a £140m fraud investigation into hotel and property developer the Signature Group.

Three residences in Merseyside and Greater Manchester were raided by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Wednesday.

https://www.thecaterer.com/news/signature-group-fraud-arrests-hotel-investigation

A New York court has ordered £5m in damages be paid in a fraud case involving a former Norwich company.

SJ Global Investments Worldwide Limited, which was based in an office on Prince of Wales Road, is named in a judgement over a failed financing deal with a US fast food restaurant business called FAT Brands.

A former Post Office worker wrongly convicted of fraud during the Horizon scandal has been cleared by the Court of Appeal.

Jacqueline Falcon, 42, was accused of reversing transactions on the faulty accounting software between December 2014 and February 2015 while working at Hadston Post Office in Northumberland.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/horizon-scandal-former-post-office-131200721.html

A company's former secretary and accountant who took nearly £58,000 from her employer has been sent to prison for 18 months.

Lyndsey Beckett, aged 44, of River Lane, in Waters Upton, Telford, appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday for sentencing after pleading guilty to fraud by abuse of position at Telford Magistrates Court in June last year.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2024/02/10/woman-jailed-for-18-months-after-taking-nearly-58000-from-her-employer/

A man who swindled the Royal Mail out of £70 million was sentenced to prison on Thursday (February 8).

Narinder Sandhu, 62, of Jordans, Buckinghamshire, had cheated the company for a decade, using the proceeds to fund a high life that included a mansion and multiple luxury cars.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is prosecuting former company directors Reginald Larry-Cole and Scott Martin for fraud in relation to the nationwide car leasing scheme, Buy2Let Cars, which attracted hundreds of British savers to pay in around £88 million.

https://www.am-online.com/news/dealer-news/2024/02/05/buy2let-cars-bosses-in-court-on-fraud-charges

A crooked businessman accused of paying £259,000 to a poultry factory worker in Anglesey for unauthorised deliveries of chicken has been jailed for four years and three months.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/black-country/2024/02/05/chickens-come-home-to-roost-for-businessman-jailed-over-meat-fraud/

A Leicester businessman, Nazir Abdul Rashid Daud, previously residing on Landseer Road, Leicester, has been sentenced to four years in prison and disqualified from company directorship for 15 years.

Daud, convicted in his absence at Leicester Crown Court on December 2, 2022, faced charges under the Fraud Act 2006 and the Companies Act 2006 for false representations and fraudulent trading between 2015 and 2018.