Conman served with confiscation order

Jan 23 2013 by Nicola Findlay, East Kilbride News

A conman who duped South Lanarkshire Council out of more than £100,000 has been hit with a £80,000 confiscation order.

Mangal Singh Dhami, 46, was found guilty in August last year of operating a fraudulent scheme, between June 1 and October 31, 2010 and was sentenced to three years in prison.

At Hamilton Sheriff Court last week a confiscation order was made under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Dhami, from Wolverhampton, pocketed the money from the council after he duped staff into believing that he was authorised to change bank details for payments to building firms Maxi Construction Ltd and Barr Ltd between June and October 2010.

He was also found guilty of defrauding North Ayrshire Council of more than £270,000 after a five-day trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court.

The jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict, dismissing claims from Dhami that he knew nothing of the fraudulent activity and the accounts involved were genuine.

Lindsey Miller, Head of the Serious and Organised Crime Division (SOCD), said: “Mangal Dhami established a scheme through which he defrauded South Lanarkshire and North Ayrshire councils of hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer’s money.

“Today, we have secured a confiscation order against him for £80,739.26.

“This figure represents the full amount which is available to us at this time, and the Crown can ask the court to recalculate the confiscation order up to the amount of the benefit recorded if Dhami obtains any cash or assets in the future.

“All of the funds recovered from Dhami will be added to the £60 million already gathered from Proceeds of Crime and will bere-invested by Scottish Ministers in community programmes, facilities and activities through the CashBack for Communities programme.”