Apr 10 2011

http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2011/04/10/birmingham-fraudster-was-victim-of-reservoir-dogs-style-torture-66331-28491833/

A GAMBLING-addicted fraudster jailed for his part in a £60 million VAT fraud was once the victim of a Reservoir Dogs-style attack.

Kuldip Singh Sander, 50, of Birmingham, was sentenced to seven years for money laundering last week.

He was the last member of a 17-member gang to be locked up. In total, the criminals were handed 50 years behind bars.

But Sander first hit the headlines after masked men abducted him, his chauffeur and a lapdancer girlfriend from a street in Birmingham at gunpoint in December 2002.

The three were hooded and taken to a factory in Smethwick where the money launderer, who was bound and gagged, was systematically tortured.

His attackers disguised their true identities by using colours instead of their real names – mirroring famous scenes in cult movie Reservoir Dogs.

Gambler Sander, who the day before had won £100,000 at the horse races, was beaten with a golf club, mallet and snooker cue before an electric drill was used on him by ‘Mr Red’.

During the six-hour ordeal, the 20 year-old lapdancer – who was being guarded by Mr Pink – was raped three times at the factory.

The three were eventually released after money was paid over.

Two men were later jailed for 21 years for the attack, while Sander needed skin grafts as a result of the injuries to his legs.

The 50 year-old, who is said to have once dated Grand National jockey Jacqui Oliver, was the last defendant of the £60 million VAT fraud to be locked up.

Others jailed in five trials after a huge investigation by Revenue and Customs included Philip Wharam, 52, who bought the title “Lord Wharram”.

Sander was a key figure in the VAT swindle which funded phenomenally luxurious lifestyles for many in the gang. He used the proceeds of the tax scam to settle his heavy debts with bookmakers.

Sander was one of 11 of the gang who came from the West Midlands.

He was responsible for opening and operating fake bank accounts, through which millions of pounds was laundered from businesses in the UK, Holland, Belgium and Germany.

Sander, who has a previous conviction for money laundering in 2004, denied four money laundering offences.

But he was found guilty by a jury and was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court to seven years in prison, minus 607 days already spent in custody.