Three guilty of large-scale fraud operation

A man has been found guilty in connection with a large-scale fraud case which left a business with over half-a-million pounds in losses.

Umar Farook was found guilty of money laundering in connection with the fraud operation involving two other men who previously pleaded guilty.

Farook was found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court last Friday (17 April).

Amreek Singh pleaded guilty on 30 March to his involvement in the conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Gurvinder Sundher pleaded guilty on 8 April to his involvement in the conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The trio worked together with others on a large-scale operation to fraudulently acquire and launder over £650,000.

The operation saw two fraudulent recruitment firms launched, and those involved sought financial support from a finance company and managed to acquire over £650,000 in funding.

The fraudulent recruitment firms initially began to repay the money back but only a small amount was ever repaid, and in August of 2020, the finance company discovered that they were in fact victims of a fraudulent operation.

Our Economic Crime Unit launched an investigation and after a thorough examination of the details, our detectives found that the group never planned to repay the money borrowed.

The stolen funds were moved around several bank accounts with different names and references in order to make it difficult to trace the money back to the original crime.

DC Edward Spokes, from our Economic Crime Unit, said: "Once the finance company discovered that they were victims of fraud and invoices for repayment were being ignored, they got in touch with West Midlands Police.

"Thankfully, our Economic Crime Unit were able to follow the trail and identify a number of those involved, and they have now been brought to justice."

The men will be sentenced at a later date.