High-flying recruiters charged with £200k worth of fraud
25 March 2014
Two recruiters who mingled with celebrities and even shook hands with the Queen at Buckingham Palace have been sentenced for masterminding a £200k fraud.
Tue, 25 Mar 2014Two recruiters who mingled with celebrities and even shook hands with the Queen at Buckingham Palace have been sentenced for masterminding a £200k fraud.
Ranjit Uppelle and Kavita Jnagal co-founded Edgbaston, Birmingham-based Simply Recruitment in 2008 – a company that claimed to ‘help adult learners improve their job chances’. This led to them being awarded the Outstanding Women in Business of the Year award in 2010.
However, it has now emerged that the pair’s success relied on them dishonestly taking money from the government-funded quango, Learndirect.
The pair raked in thousands of pounds in commission for faking student enrolment and exam result records in adult education packages.
Fake profiles were created and hundreds of “students” were suspected to have been enrolled without their knowledge, in a bid to receive funding.
Both admitted conspiracy to defraud at Southwark Crown Court. They were handed suspended jail terms of nine and six months respectively and ordered to pay £1k costs.
Ranjit Uppelle and Kavita Jnagal co-founded Edgbaston, Birmingham-based Simply Recruitment in 2008 – a company that claimed to ‘help adult learners improve their job chances’. This led to them being awarded the Outstanding Women in Business of the Year award in 2010.
However, it has now emerged that the pair’s success relied on them dishonestly taking money from the government-funded quango, Learndirect.
The pair raked in thousands of pounds in commission for faking student enrolment and exam result records in adult education packages.
Fake profiles were created and hundreds of “students” were suspected to have been enrolled without their knowledge, in a bid to receive funding.
Both admitted conspiracy to defraud at Southwark Crown Court. They were handed suspended jail terms of nine and six months respectively and ordered to pay £1k costs.
