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Indian tax expert jailed for #2m fraud
Nipan Malde was jailed for four years for trying to steal #2 million from his bosses to build a temple, reports Nabanita Sircar.
An Indian tax expert, who came to Britain at the age of 10, was jailed for four years last week for trying to steal £2 million from his bosses to build a temple.
The Southwark Crown Court was told that Nipan Malde, 43, who was a tax expert at Investec Bank, devoted his life to religion. He used the cash to buy properties in London. But the head of group was finally discovered when he tried to pocket a further £850,000.
Anthony Arlidge QC, defending, said: "The fraud that was attempted was that, in various ways, Investec was persuaded to make payments to the Inland Revenue which were, in fact, overpayments. "The result of that was that there was then a claim for repayment from the Inland Revenue to accounts controlled by Mr Malde."
Staff at HSBC became suspicious when he transferred £85,000 into his own account. Arlidge told the court Malde was motivated by a desire to create a new temple for the Shree Shree Radhe Krishna Centre, based in Enmore Street, South Norwood.
He said: "This was a man who wanted to try to raise considerable sum of money for this religious organisation. The group have a temple in a garden in South Norwood, but this was not a site they could really be proud of. His own lifestyle was relatively simple - there is no question of extravagant living."
Malde, of Streatham, admitted nine counts of obtaining money transfers by deception between May 2000 and October 2003.
A charge of attempting to obtain a money transfer by deception on October 17 last year will lie on file. Malde paid tens of thousands of pounds he had earned in bonuses to the religious organisation. It is believed after stealing the cash he travelled to India on a number of occasions to seek forgiveness from a spiritual leader.
Sentencing him, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, said: "I am far from being convinced your ultimate intention was to purchase a property and build a temple. That you generously gave your annual bonus to the temple was true, but you could afford to do that in the circumstances."
"If that had been your only intention in stealing this money, I really don't see why so much time would have passed. At best this may have been your broad intention at the outset, but it never came to anything. The quality and degree of trust placed in you and the degree of time over which these offences were committed and the amounts stolen make this a very serious matter indeed."
The court was told the bank had launched a lawsuit against Malde to recoup the lost funds, making confiscation proceedings unnecessary.
