CPS News Brief

Fake locum doctor sentenced

A man who pretended to be a qualified doctor has been sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court to six years in prison.

Levon Mkhitarian pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud, 13 counts of making articles for use in frauds, one count of possession of an identity document with improper intention and one count of obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception.

It is calculated that the defendant received payments totalling £85,004.04 for work obtained through using this false documentation and came into contact with 3363 patients. He undertook work that he was not qualified to perform on cancer wards, transplant wards, general surgery, cardio wards, A&E on call, elderly wards and other general wards.

Ms Jaswant Narwal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS South East, said:

“This is an extremely troubling case which involved over 3,000 patients fooled into believing the person caring for them was a qualified doctor. We all put a huge amount of trust in our doctors when we are often at our most vulnerable, but Levon Mkhitarian violated that trust for his own personal gain – an estimated £85,000.

“The potential risk to people’s health makes this a particularly serious and dangerous fraud. Levon Mkhitarian has now seen the full extent of his lies finally exposed.

“The CPS will now take steps to recover the criminal assets of his fraud under the Proceeds of Crime Act.”

Former employee found guilty over Morrisons data theft

Andrew Skelton, a former employee of Morrisons supermarket has today (17 July) been found guilty of fraud, securing unauthorised access to computer material and disclosing personal data. He has been sentenced to eight years at Bradford Crown Court, in relation to stealing personal data belonging to nearly 100,000 Morrisons employees.

David Holderness, reviewing lawyer, Complex Casework Unit, CPS Yorkshire and Humberside said:

“Andrew Skelton was in a position of considerable trust with access to confidential personal information as Senior Internal Auditor at Morrisons.

“He abused this position by uploading this information – which included employees’ names, addresses and bank account details - onto various internet websites.

“He then attempted to cover his tracks and implicate a fellow employee by using this colleague’s details to set up a fake email account.

“Andrew Skelton’s motive appears to have been a personal grievance over a previous incident where he was accused of dealing in legal highs at work. 

“The potential loss to his victims and the sheer quantity of potentially compromised data was very significant and could have resulted in employees’ identities being stolen. Currently Morrison’s has incurred costs of almost £2 million as a result of this fraud, costs have included professional fees, legal fees and fees incurred through attempts to safeguard their employees.

“The sentence imposed today sends out a very clear message that we will robustly prosecute serious fraudsters such as Skelton who believe they are above the law.”

11 sentenced on one of largest sex worker trafficking cases prosecuted in London

Eleven people were today (16^th July) sentenced at Southwark Crown Court for their part in one of the largest cases involving the trafficking of sex workers into the UK ever prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service in London. The prosecution involved CPS London, the Metropolitan Police Service and the Hungarian authorities and involved the trafficking of at least 250 sex workers from Hungary. The gang were arrested between June and July 2014.

 CPS London Chief Crown Prosecutor Baljit Ubhey OBE, said:

“This sophisticated and commercial scale operation is one of the largest ever prosecuted by CPS London. It involved the trafficking of at least 250 sex workers from Hungary for the purposes of sexual exploitation to be controlled in prostitution and 50 brothel addresses in both London and Peterborough. Central to this successful prosecution was strong joint working between CPS London, the Met police and Hungarian authorities, foundations for which were put in place more than two years ago by setting up a Joint Investigation Team. This enabled us to build the strongest possible case to put before the court, leading seven of those involved to plead guilty owing to the weight of evidence against them.

 “While in many cases the women were voluntarily working in prostitution, they were trafficked here to be exploited and controlled, with the women having to give up to half of their earnings for the privilege of working in a house or brothel run by the defendants. One of the girls was trafficked against her will and raped by one of the individuals sentenced today and I would like to applaud her courage in reporting this to the police and giving evidence during the trial. I hope this prosecution provides some comfort to her and the other victims these individuals preyed on. I hope this case demonstrates our commitment to working with partners both in the UK and overseas in tackling organised crime involving trafficking and sexual exploitation.  I would also like to extend my thanks to the Hungarian authorities for their invaluable assistance in this case.”

 

Sentences:

• Erno Milankovics, 53 (01.09.61). Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffick into the UK x 2 and conspiracy to control prostitution, for which he was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months imprisonment.
• Zoltan Pamminger, 46, (24.02.72). Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffick into the UK x 2 and conspiracy to control prostitution. He was jailed for 5 years and 4 months.
• Monika Zoltai, 44 (02.08.73). Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffick into the UK x 2 and conspiracy to control prostitution and has been jailed for 4 years.
• Zsolt Blaga, 38 (23.12.76). Convicted of conspiracy to traffick into the UK x 3; conspiracy to traffick within the UK x 2; conspiracy to control prostitution x 2 and rape x 2. He has been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.
• Jeno Burai, 30 (17.06.85). Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffick person into the UK x 2; conspiracy to control prostitution. He has been jailed for 6 years and 8 months.
• Natalia Csendes, 29 (12.10.86). Convicted of conspiracy to traffick into the UK x 2 and conspiracy to control prostitution. She was jailed for 2 years and six months.
• Csaba Kovacs, 32 (27.01.83). Convicted of conspiracy to traffick into the UK x 2; conspiracy to traffick within the UK and conspiracy to control prostitution. She has been jailed for 5 years.
• Melinda Jeger, 31 (19.03.84). Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to control prostitution and was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment.
• Agnes Szilli, 28 (01.11.86). Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to control prostitution and has been jailed for 20 months.
• Istvan Szilli, 46 (19.05.69). Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to control prostitution, for which he has been sentenced to 20 months imprisonment.
• Zoltan Hogenadler 40, (11.02.65). Convicted of conspiracy to traffick into the UK x 2; conspiracy to traffick within the UK x 2; and conspiracy to control prostitution. He has been jailed for 5 years.

CPS seize £40,000 off canoe fraudster John Darwin

The Crown Prosecution Service has recovered £40,000 from John Darwin, who was found guilty of deception in 2008 with his wife over a life insurance scam. He faked his own death and was reported missing in a canoe in the sea off Seaton Carew in March 2002. Meanwhile, his wife collected hundreds of thousands of pounds in life insurance payouts, with John Darwin hiding in the marital home.

The recent payment of £40,000 brings the total amount paid in confiscation orders by the Darwins to £541,762 and 39 pence. The £40,000 was paid on 28 July 2014 from John Darwin’s pension, which he had deferred until the same time his licence preventing him for leaving the country was about to run out. Following his conviction, the court found that John Darwin had benefited by £679,194.62, but having pretended to be dead, all assets were in his wife’s name. The court therefore made an order for £1 allowing the CPS to amend the order should any assets, such as this pension, become available.

The Darwins now have no known assets remaining for confiscation.

Nick Price, Head of Proceeds of Crime at the Crown Prosecution Service, said:

“When John Darwin devised his plan to defraud insurance companies, he didn’t think he’d get caught at all. But he also didn’t bank on the dedication and determination of my team to recover the money he stole – even seven years later.

“This case really shows that fraud doesn’t pay.

“My thanks also go to police colleagues in the North East Regional Asset Recovery Team for their hard work.”

Company and its senior management sentenced following death of 16 year old apprentice

Huntley Mount Engineering Ltd has today been sentenced for the corporate manslaughter of apprentice Cameron Minshull. In addition, company Director Zaffar Hussain has been sentenced for an offence under section 2 and 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and company Supervisor Akbar Hussain has also been sentenced for an offence under section 7 of the same act. Lime People Training Solutions Ltd has been sentenced for an offence under section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

These offences related to the death of Cameron Minshull, a 16-year-old apprentice who had recently started working at the company. Cameron became entangled in a lathe which he was operating and was fatally injured on 8 January 2013.

Elizabeth Reid, specialist prosecutor at the CPS said: 

“Cameron Minshull’s death was entirely avoidable.

“The company and its senior management allowed a 16-year-old apprentice to work on dangerous and defective machinery. Not only was Cameron Minshull put to work on machinery without any meaningful supervision but he was provided with limited training.

“The risks were obvious. The death of a 16-year-old could have been prevented.

“The CPS, Greater Manchester Police and the Health and Safety Executive worked together to investigate thoroughly and to prosecute appropriately those responsible for this work-related death.”

 

Additional information:

Cameron Minshull was tasked to carry out what was an inherently unsafe operation, of manual ‘deburring’, on a computerised lathe on which the interlock had been defeated, leaving the spinning chuck unguarded. Had the interlock been working, such an unsafe operation would not have been possible. Far from being an exceptional practice, this unsafe operation was undertaken regularly by young employees, and by Zaffar and Akbar Hussain themselves, who have maintained that they did not appreciate how dangerous it was.

If Lime People Training Solutions Ltd. had complied with health and safety requirements, they would have realised that the company was a wholly unsuitable placement for any apprentice, let alone a boy of 16 years, operating a system of work that was grossly unsafe.

 

Sentencing details:

Huntley Mount Engineering Ltd. fined £150,000

Lime People Training Solutions Ltd. fined £75,000

Zaffar Hussain sentenced to 8 months imprisonment and disqualified from being a company director for 10 years

Akbar Hussain sentenced to 4 months suspended for 12 months, ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work and given a £3,000 fine

Ex-UKIP MEP Ashley Mote convicted of 11 counts of false accounting, fraud and related offences

On 15 May at Southwark Crown Court Ashley Mote was convicted of four counts of obtaining money transfer by deception, three counts of false accounting, two counts of fraud and two counts of money laundering. These offences, which involved over £400,000 worth of false claims to the European Parliament, occurred between 2004 and 2009 whilst Mr Mote was an independent MEP for South East of England. He has today been sentenced to five years. 

Zoe Martin, specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service said: 

"Ashley Mote purported to expose fraud and promote accountability within the European Parliament. However, these values were not applied to his own blatantly dishonest actions as an MEP. 

"Over a period of five years, Mr Mote misused his allowances as a member of the European Parliament to fund his personal expenses. This included paying off part of a bridging loan and the mortgage on his home. He also used the European Parliament funds to pay his legal bills in connection with his previous fraud trial and a related civil action."