Oct 9 2010

by Mark Cowan, Birmingham Mail

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/black-country/black-country-news/2010/10/09/four-jailed-for-100-000-casino-money-laundering-97319-27433864/

FOUR conmen who helped to launder hundreds of thousands of pounds for crooks in casinos have been ordered to cough up nearly £100,000 – or face a further 10 years behind bars.

The fraudsters gambled the cash collected by drugs dealers.

They also aided VAT and credit card fraudsters to ‘clean up’ their ‘dirty money’.

They enjoyed luxury lifestyles at swanky addresses and had designer jewellery and flash cars.

The gang’s principal players – Harvinder Singh Batth, of Roman Lane, Little Aston, and Sukhjinder Singh Shergill, of Snapdragon Drive, Walsall – were each convicted of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to launder money.

Batth, 34, jailed for a total of nine years, was ordered to pay £500,000 or serve a further three-and-a-half years in prison.

His Little Aston home and designer jewellery have been ‘restrained’.

Shergill, 34, serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence, was told to pay back £55,292 or serve a further 18 months in prison.

Assets including designer jewellery, Cartier watches, and a cherished number plate – S11 ERG – have been ‘restrained’.

The other two, Suckjit Singh Birring and Jatinder Singh Salh, were convicted of conspiracy to launder money for their part as gamblers and couriers.

Birring, 38, got two-and-a-half years in jail and 37-year-old Salh three-and-a-half years.

Birring was ordered to pay £200,000 or return to prison for a further two-and-a-half years. His home in Weeford Dell, Sutton Coldfield, is currently ‘restrained’ along with two luxury cars.

Salh was ordered to cough up £136,637 or return to prison for 30 months.

Customs officers currently have restraining orders on his home in Harvestfield Way, Sutton Coldfield, a property in Spain and £59,000 in cash.

All have been given six months to pay up.

Richard Meadows, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation for HMRC, said: “This was organised fraud on a massive scale perpetrated by criminals intent on making huge profits at the expense of the British taxpayer.

“This shows our determination and success in bringing to justice the criminals behind VAT fraud and money laundering then taking away the proceeds of their crime.”