Five money launderers jailed after £1.2m scam around bogus computer issues

Amanda Grigg, Jose Kuriakose, Gena Harrington, Bindu Devasia and Nicholas Alcide were jailed for nine and a half years in total for offences including scamming one victim out of £4,427.96.

Leeds Crown Court handed down sentences to the defendants who posed as computer companies including HP and Microsoft to get victims’ money before sending it to fraudsters in India.

National Trading Standards Chair Lord Michael Bichard said they had no qualms about enriching themselves off the backs of elderly and vulnerable victims using a vast web of companies.

It follows an investigation led by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team based at York Council and North Yorkshire Council with support from West Midlands, Staffordshire and Wiltshire police officers.

The probe found that the five offenders transferred around £1,289,837 of victims’ money to two brothers based in India between May 2015 and November 2019. The brothers were behind the network of companies used to defraud people.

Victims were snared through fake online adverts which falsely led them to believe they had issues with their computers which could be fixed by paying a fee.

The money was then laundered through a network of companies with the offenders as directors taking their cut before forwarding the rest on to India.

In one case, someone posing as an HP representative called Henry told a victim his computer had been hacked and demanded an immediate payment of £803.98 to fix it.

The victim sent a cheque the next day after which he received more calls over the next several months demanding payments for other issues amounting to £4,427.96. This was later reported to Trading Standards who launched their investigation.

Grigg, 66, Kuriakose, 50, Harrington, 39, Devasia, 49 and Alcide, 40 were found guilty of entering into a money laundering arrangement, contrary to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Grigg, of Truro, Cornwell, was sentenced to three years in prison while Kuriakose, of Deal, Kent, received a 50-month sentence and Harrington, of Handsworth, Birmingham was jailed for 30 months.

Devasia, of Deal, got an eight-month suspended jail sentence for two years and Alcide, of Birmingham, received a 15-month suspended prison sentence for two years. Both were ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid community work each.

All the offenders were disqualified from being a company director for six years, except Alcide who was disqualified for two, when the sentences were handed down on June 3.

York Council’s Regional Investigations and eCrime Team Manager Ruth Andrews said even those who took a hands off approach to fraud and turned a blind eye would face justice.

The team manager said: “Without these defendants the fraud would not have worked, as their laundering of the proceeds of the offending was an essential element from which they also personally benefited.”

National Trading Standards Chair Lord Bichard said: “I hope that the sentences handed down will serve as a powerful reminder to all money launderers that they risk prosecution - regardless of how well-coordinated their operations may seem.”