A former bank worker has been jailed for two years and eight months after stealing £50,000 in charity donations from Sikh Youth UK to fund her lifestyle and pay off debts.
Rajbinder Kaur, 55, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday after being convicted of money laundering and six counts of theft.
The Handsworth Wood resident transferred funds from charitable donations, including money raised at a winter sleep-out and football tournament, into her personal accounts.
Kaur maintained over 50 personal bank accounts in what police say was an attempt to complicate the tracking of stolen funds.
Kaldip Singh Lehal and Rajbinder Kaur were sentenced
West Midlands Police
Despite her background as a former bank employee, she attempted to present herself as financially naive when investigated. The stolen donations were used to repay her personal debts and loans, while some money was also sent to relatives.
Her brother Kaldip Singh Lehal, 43, was also involved in the scheme, though he received a suspended sentence for his role.
Speaking after the sentencing hearing, Superintendent Annie Miller from West Midlands Police said: “Kaur tried to portray herself as someone naïve about financial matters despite having worked in a bank.”
“SYUK was clearly a means to fund her lifestyle and pay her debts off, but in the simplest of terms Kaur was stealing large amounts of money that had been donated by people for good causes,” Miller added.
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The superintendent noted that it had been “a very long and complex investigation into fraud,” conducted in close cooperation with the Charity Commission.
Kaur was convicted last September of money laundering, six counts of theft totalling £50,000 and providing false information to the Charity Commission under Section 60 of the Charities Act 2011.
Her brother Lehal was also found guilty of providing misleading information to the Charity Commission. The pair were initially arrested in July 2019 and charged two months later.
Lehal received a four-month suspended sentence for 18 months and must complete 80 hours of community service. Sikh Youth UK received numerous donations through fundraising events in 2018, including a sponsored winter sleep-out and a football tournament.
The organisation was formed in 2016, with Kaur and Lehal running its operations. That same year, they applied to the Charity Commission for SYUK to become a registered charity.
However, when the Commission requested additional information about the application, this request was ignored.
As a result, the charity application was closed, leaving SYUK unregistered when the thefts occurred.
