Two men convicted in 2010 for fixing further education and training contracts have received increased confiscation orders from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) last month. The SFO identified additional assets worth £140,000 from their operation and ordered the pair to repay this gain.
The case in point
The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 gives the SFO the power to continue investigations into criminal assets even after conviction. Should additional assets be identified, the SFO can seek for an uplift confiscating these assets.
Silinder Singh Sidhu and Paul Kent rigged contracts to local training providers through the Shropshire Learning Skills Council (SLSC). Local training providers were awarded contracts valued over £1.3 million with Sidhu and Kent receiving almost half a million pounds in fraudulent payments and financial benefits of over £467,000 between them.
Using a fraudulent CV, Mr Kent secured a position as a director of the SLSC in 2003, a body established by Parliament to provide and fund high quality education and training to young people not in university education. Mr Sidhu was recruited as an employee of SLSC a year later to join the fraud.
Mr Kent received payments in the form of bribes in return for the award of contracts. After leaving the SLSC, Mr Sidhu used his company SLK Marketing Ltd to receive over £266,000 from the SLSC as a service provider. Mr Sidhu paid Mr Kent over £80,000 in corrupt payments.
Both men were sentenced in 2010. Mr Kent received four and a half years in prison and paid £3,240 in confiscation after admitting to 11 counts of receipt of corrupt payments and one count for obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception. Mr Sidhu plead guilty to two counts of corruption but was later found guilty of two further counts after a two-week trial. He was sentenced to three-years and paid more than £31,500 in confiscation.
Substantial additional assets were identified after a further review into the pair’s proceeds of crime by the SFO. As a result, more than £111,000 from Mr Kent and £27,000 from Mr Sidhu were further secured.
Rosenblatt can help
Rosenblatt has a wealth of experience in financial crime and is uniquely placed to support clients’ that are the subject of a SFO investigation and prosecution having been involved in high profile investigations into a global pharmaceuticals company, a multi-million pound affordable property investment scheme, a multi-million pound pension fraud scheme and a world leading global security company.
https://www.rosenblatt-law.co.uk/services/financial-crime/
(Sources: SFO traces and seizes additional funds from Shropshire training contract fraudsters – Serious Fraud Office)
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