Justice has been brought for consumers who were conned by two brothers, Amarjit and Shivjit Bagharian, from St Albans Road, Smethwick. The brothers were the ringleaders of a timeshare fraud gang and have been ordered to pay back £100,000 following proceeds of crime investigation.
Amarjit and Shivjit were both jailed for seven years and two months back in February 2016 after admitting a fraud conspiracy topping £1 million.
Their intention was never to make any effort to sell, only to pocket the ‘up-front fees’ claiming the fees were needed to cover, land searches, taxes or legal fees, claiming without the monies they could not start the search for a buyer.
Therefore, the West Midlands Police launched what’s called a ‘Proceeds of Crime (POCA) Investigation’ in the hope of getting back the monies which they have deceived from the consumers, however, both claimed they were broke and neither had any sole assets
The prosecuting judge at Birmingham Crown Court concluded they collectively profited from the scam to the sum of £1,019,337. Due to the staggering amount, this will thankfully hang over them for life and investigators are authorised to strip them of more cash and assets in future.
Yvonne Barwani, Detective Constable, from West Midlands Police’s Economic Crime Unit, said: “These three have all been handed long prison sentences for their involvement in the fraud − but our investigations don’t stop there, and we will always pursue offenders through the courts to deprive them of money or property accrued through crime.
“The benefit sum will hang over them for life… so if they come into any money or property at any point in the future, then we can re-visit their order and recover the value of the assets utilising this powerful legislation. In this case, any money that is recovered will be used to compensate the victims.”
The sentencing judge at Birmingham Crown Court ruled the Bagharian brothers and Mandy Castellain, from Oldham, who was also imprisoned for her part for six years seven months, all had ‘hidden assets’ and ordered each to pay back £30,000 within the next three months or have another 15 months added to their jail sentence.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk