Deputy CEO jailed for £325k fraud

Lakhbir Jaspal at Birmingham Crown Court today admitted eight counts of fraud by abuse of position and was jailed for three years.

Mr Jaspal, who earned £147,000 a year as deputy chief executive of the 13,000-home association, submitted a series of invoices between 2011 and 2012 from a bogus firm he created purely to steal from Accord. Mr Jaspal fabricated six bills, the largest for £97,980.

Accord identified the fraud and confronted Mr Jaspal when two more invoices emerged from a mystery firm called ‘Serus’ in May this year requesting payment of £67,860.

Mr Jaspal immediately admitted the theft and the matter was then passed to West Midlands Police when the full extent of the fraud emerged. Mr Jaspal resigned from his post and left Accord in June.

Police and Accord investigators probed payments made to the company and found Jaspal had bought ‘Serus Ltd’ online for a few hundred pounds just weeks before the first fraudulent invoice was lodged in August 2011.

The qualified accountant was arrested on 6 August from his million pound home in Gaydon – complete with indoor pool and gym – and immediately admitted the con claiming he was in desperate need of cash to fund his frail mother’s residential care.

However, West Midlands Police detectives revealed the care was NHS-funded and that his family had splashed £13,000 in just two months on jewellery despite claiming to be in “constant worry” over meeting care home bills. He later admitted using the cash to buy franchises in sandwich firm Subway.

Mr Jaspal admitted eight counts of fraud by abuse of position and at Birmingham Crown Court today (Friday 20 November) was sentenced to three years in prison. 

Detective constable Mark Delaney said: “It is a classic case of pure greed: not satisfied with a £147,000 a year salary, he spotted an opportunity to defraud the company – one that is part-funded by the taxpayer – to line his own pockets.

“Mr Jaspal hid the Serus invoices in a ‘new initiatives’ account; he was the principal budget holder with responsibility for monitoring and authorising expenditure. He is a qualified accountant and abused his accountancy skills and his senior position to hide the fictitious invoices in Accord’s account figures.

“It’s particularly distasteful he tried claiming he needed the money to pay for his mother’s end-of-life care – but our enquiries showed she was admitted to a home in December 2013, more than 12 months after his last successful fraudulent invoice.” 

In 2010, then social housing regulator the Tenant Services Authority appointed Mr Jaspal to the board of Three Valleys Housing, which was at the time under supervision.

A spokesperson for Accord added: “We were shocked and disappointed with the actions of this one individual within our company who abused his position to steal.

“This was an isolated incident and we have a zero-tolerance policy against any such crimes. We have a legal agreement in place to recover the money and all costs, and we would like to reassure our staff and customers that it is business as usual for the group. 

“We would particularly wish to thank the police, especially the lead officer, DC Delaney. They have worked tirelessly to bring the investigation to court in a speedy and highly professional way, and they have done an excellent job in securing this conviction.”