Accord 'hit by previous large fraud'

The former deputy chief executive of Accord Group Lakhbir Jaspal was jailed for three years on Friday after admitting eight counts of fraud by abuse of position. Mr Jaspal set up a bogus company to steal money from Accord to buy sandwich bars.

Accord was hit by a similar case four years ago. Accord employee Steven Halford, then 26 years old, was jailed in 2011 for stealing more than £82,000 from Accord over two-and-a-half years to fund his drug habit. He did this by creating false invoices and paying money into numerous bank accounts.

Mr Jaspal worked on Accord’s internal investigation into Mr Halford’s case. Mr Halford was jailed in November 2011, three months after the first fraudulent invoice lodged by Mr Jaspal.

An Accord spokesperson said the Jaspal and Halford cases are “totally unrelated”.

He said: “There have been thorough and detailed investigations by forensic teams from two of the UK’s largest accountancy firms which have confirmed this [the Jaspal case] was an isolated case.”

UPDATE: At 12.23pm on 25.11.15

A previous version of this story said Mr Jaspal led the internal investigation into Mr Halford’s case. This was based on information supplied to Inside Housing by other sources which was later confirmed by Accord Group itself. Accord Group is now saying that Mr Jaspal, while involved in the investigation, did not lead on it. The story has been amended to say Mr Jaspal ‘worked on’ the investigation.