CPS News Brief

Pair sentenced for decade-long insider fraud scheme

A former broker and his partner have been jailed over a conspiracy to defraud his employer of more than $2.3 million US dollars (over £1.757million GBP). 

 

Simon Higginson, a broker for maritime insurance firm Willis Group Limited (now Willis Towers Watson), led a sophisticated fraud scheme involving the identity theft of a business contact and was today (19 August 2016) sentenced to five years imprisonment. His partner Lee Willis, with whom Higginson shared a home, was sentenced to four years imprisonment.

 

Naheed Hussain, Deputy Head of the Specialist Fraud Division said:

 

“This case of sophisticated fraud spanning over a decade is an example of a successful organisation falling victim to fraudulent activity within its ranks.

 

“Whilst  some counter-corruption, money laundering, bribery and fraud protections were in place at the company, the evidence showed that Mr Higginson simply adjusted his tactics in response to any new measure, making forgeries and telling lies to cover up his criminal activity.

 

“The strength of the evidence and the Crown’s case against Higginson and Willis led to them pleading guilty.”

 

Additional information:

 

Between 1 August 2003 and 1 January 2014 Higginson and Willis conspired together to defraud Willis Group Limited by dishonestly claiming and receiving purported commission payments into bank accounts.

 

On 19 August 2016 the guilty plea for a charge of conspiracy to defraud was formally accepted. The remaining charges will lie on file.

 

Details of charges:

 

Simon Higginson and Lee Willis were charged with conspiracy to defraud Willis Group Limited by dishonestly claiming and receiving, into bank accounts held in the names Brokermarine and Enargee Consulting Limited, payments they said were commission in usual business transactions.

 

Higginson was additionally charged with obtaining money transfers by deception and fraud contrary to section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006. 

 

Lee Willis was additionally charged with concealing, disguising, converting or transferring criminal property, or removing criminal property from England and Wales and Fraud by Abuse of Position contrary  to section 4 Fraud Act 2006.

 

Romanian man jailed for 15 years for rape and robbery

A man has been jailed for 15 years for the rape and robbery of a vulnerable 69-year-old woman in Worthing. 

Gabriel Lupu, 23, a Romanian national who had only been in the UK for around three months prior to the attack on 9 May this year, previously pleaded guilty to the offences at Lewes Crown Court.

The victim was a vulnerable lady, not least because she had experienced serious mental health issues for many years. Lupu attempted to take her handbag at around 1.30am in Worthing town centre. He then forced her into a car park and raped her.

Lupu was subsequently caught on CCTV in possession of her handbag. This was later found but £200 in cash had been removed.

Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS South East, Kris Venkatasami, said:

“Thanks to DNA evidence secured from the victim’s clothing, along with CCTV footage, the case built against Lupu was overwhelming and he was left with little option but to plead guilty to these serious crimes.

“Lupu targeted a woman who was clearly vulnerable and far older than himself and today’s sentence is testimony to the horrific nature of his attack.”

The case was prosecuted by the CPS South East Rape and Serious Sexual Offences unit, which is staffed by specially trained lawyers, paralegal officers and admin caseworkers, who offer specialist legal advice and decision-making on cases of rape and serious sexual assault.

 

Notes to Editors

Sentencing details

Rape - 10 years imprisonment (extended 5 years) - 15 year extended sentence in total.

Robbery - 4 years imprisonment (concurrent).

Recommended that the defendant be deported. 

Placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Two women found guilty of brutal murder

Two friends, Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh, have been found guilty of the murder of Sadie Hartley who was stabbed to death at her home in Helmshore, Lancashire last January. 

Williams previously had a relationship with Sadie Hartley’s partner Ian Johnston. She killed Sadie with the assistance of a stun gun and by stabbing her over 40 times when she answered the door on the evening of 14 January. Her body was found by police officers in the hallway the following day after family and friends raised concerns that they had not been able to contact her.   

Although the attack on Sadie was committed by Williams alone, the court heard during the trial how she and Walsh jointly planned the murder in great detail in the weeks beforehand. Their preparations even extended to travelling to Germany to buy a stun gun and secretly placing a tracker device on Ian Johnston’s car to find out where he and Sadie Hartley were living.  

Williams and Walsh both denied murder but were found guilty after a six-week trial at Preston Crown Court.  

Wendy Evans, Senior Crown Prosecutor from CPS North West, said: 

“Sarah Williams killed Sadie Hartley in a frenzied and brutal attack in her own home.  She knew that Sadie would be alone at that time and ensured that she had no opportunity to defend herself. It was a pre-meditated, cold-blooded murder.  

“She was motivated by jealousy and a desire to get rid of the woman she saw as her rival and recruited her friend Katrina Walsh to the plan. Although Katrina Walsh didn’t take part in the vicious attack on Sadie, she knew what was being plotted and played a role in the planning and preparation and later in the disposal of evidence.  

“They believed they had planned the perfect murder and had covered all their tracks, when in fact they were leaving behind a trail of evidence. The prosecution team sifted through and pieced together the many strands of evidence in this case and proved the defendants’ guilt so that the jury were sure of it. 

“Throughout this trial Sarah Williams protested her innocence and pointed the blame for the murder at Katrina Walsh. In her police interviews, Katrina Walsh claimed that she thought the plot was just an elaborate game. The jury have seen through those lies and have today found them both jointly responsible for murdering Sadie Hartley.  

“Above all my thoughts and sympathies are with Sadie’s family and her many friends today for the devastating loss they have suffered, and I hope that these  verdicts will provide some comfort at this very difficult time.”

Failed company and its manager convicted of corporate and gross negligence manslaughter

TODAY Bilston Skips and Bikram Singh Mahli were found guilty of the manslaughter of 24-year-old site worker Jagpal Singh. Bikram Singh Mahli was sentenced to two years imprisonment suspended for a period of two years. The company, which is now in liquidation, was fined £600,000. 

Dan Jones, specialist prosecutor at the CPS said:

“Safe working practices were not in place at Bilston Skips Limited. The risk to onsite workers had not been considered and was not managed.

“The gross neglect of health and safety measures by the company and its manager was so serious that it was criminal. It led directly to the fatal incident that killed Jagpal Singh.

“The CPS continues to work with the police and Health & Safety Executive investigators to bring to justice those who fail in their duty of care towards workers, failing their trust and endangering lives."

On 28 June 2012 Jagpal Singh fell eight feet from the top of a skip. He died later in New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton having suffered severe injury to internal organs.

Jagpal Singh had been working in and around two large skips, accessible only via a metal ladder on the side, in order to rearranging “green waste” or garden rubbish for compression.  The arm of a JCB excavator being used to compress the waste and said to have been in very poor condition was in very close proximity to where he was working. It is not known whether the arm made contact with his body before he fell. The manager Bikram Singh Mahli was operating the JCB excavator to compress the contents of the skip.

 

Additional Information: 

Bikram Singh Mahli was known to other workers as both the Manager and General Manager of the company, since 2011 when the previous manager left. He requested that Balwinder Singh, who cannot read or write English, sign formal documents concerning the company.

Bilston Skips Limited, a skip service company based in Wolverhampton, and its manager Bikram Singh Mahli were negligent in their duty of care towards staff. There was no record of any Health and Safety qualified individual on site. Mahli confirmed he had no health and safety training and there was no system in place to report or record any incidents.

 

Details of convictions:

Bilston Skips Limited was charged with one charge of corporate manslaughter and one Section 2 Health and Safety charge (HSWA). They were convicted of both at trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, which concluded on 16 August 2016.

Bikram Singh Mahli was charged with gross negligence manslaughter and found guilty at trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, which concluded on 16 August 2016. He was also charged with one Section 37 Health and Safety (HSWA) offence to which he pleaded guilty to at the start of trial.

 

Three men convicted of encouraging support for Daesh

Three men have been convicted of making speeches encouraging others to support Daesh and further its activities. 

Mohammed Alamgir, Yousuf Bashir and Rajib Khan made several speeches in Luton and were part of the local branch of the proscribed extremist group Al-Muhajiroun. Their speeches encouraged people to join Daesh and not to “sit on the sidelines”. 

The Al-Muhajiroun group was infiltrated by an undercover police officer who covertly collected evidence which was used to convict the men. The men also had links with Anjem Choudary, who was also recently convicted of encouraging support for Daesh.

Sue Hemming, CPS Head of Counter Terrorism, said:

“These men sought to divide our society with messages of hate and extremism and their desire for a role in conflict and conquest has only ended in a conviction. 

“Knowingly encouraging people to join or support a proscribed organisation is a crime and will be prosecuted.” 

Notes to Editors

Mohammed Istiak Alamgir – convicted of three counts of encouraging support for a proscribed organisation, contrary to s12(3) Terrorism Act 2000

Yousuf Bashir – convicted of one count of encouraging support for a proscribed organisation, contrary to s12(3) Terrorism Act 2000

Rajib Khan – convicted of two counts of encouraging support for a proscribed organisation, contrary to s12(3) Terrorism Act 2000

Anjem Choudary and Mohammed Rahman convicted of inviting support for Daesh

Two men have been convicted of inviting support for a proscribed terrorist organisation following a trial at the Old Bailey.

Anjem Choudary and Mohammed Rahman were convicted after they were shown to have praised the declaration of a new Caliphate by Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in June 2014. The two men swore an oath of allegiance to the Caliphate and called on others to support it, including by travelling to Syria.   

By the time they gave their oath, Daesh (then more widely known as Islamic State) had been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the former Home Secretary, Theresa May. 

Both men went on to publish a series of videos on Youtube attempting to legitimise the Caliphate and inviting support for it. Evidence showed that Choudary had been encouraged to get this message out to his followers by, amongst others,  Siddhartha Dhar, who later left the UK to fight with Daesh. 

Sue Hemming, CPS Head of Counter Terrorism, said:

“These two men knowingly sought to legitimise a terrorist organisation and encouraged others to support it. They used the power of social media to attempt to influence those who are susceptible to these types of messages, which might include the young or vulnerable.

“Both men were fully aware that Daesh is a proscribed terrorist group, the brutal activities they are carrying out and that what they were doing was illegal. Terrorism can have no place in our society and those that encourage others to join such organisations will be prosecuted.”

They will be sentenced on 6 September at the Old Bailey.

 

Further information

 

Anjem Choudary and Mohammed Rahman were found guilty of one count each of inviting support for a proscribed organisation, contrary to section 12(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000

Woman sentenced for making false health claims to receive benefits

A 49-year-old Croydon woman who cruelly subjected her two children to unnecessary and invasive medical treatment by making false claims about their health so she could claim benefits, has been sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment today (August 15th) at Croydon Crown Court.

Malcolm McHaffie, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London, said:

“The prosecution’s case was that the defendant’s actions in exposing and subjecting her children to unnecessary and invasive operations and excessive medication were motivated by dishonesty and greed. As a result of her extraordinary cruelty, this individual is now going to spend a significant amount of time in prison.

“In total over a period of at least 10 years she successfully claimed £375,198.02 in Disability Living Allowance and Income Support benefit. That a mother should go to such lengths of child cruelty, spanning at least 10 years, to support the false and exaggerated benefits claims that she made is beyond comprehension.

“The thorough three-year police investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service laid the strong foundations for this successful prosecution, which demonstrates our commitment to work together to tackle instances of child cruelty and benefit fraud in London.”

 

Convicted of:

Four counts of cruelty to a person under 16

Two counts of obtaining money transfer by deception

Seven counts of making a false representation

Two counts of fraud by false representation