{"id":3159,"date":"2008-03-19T17:31:56","date_gmt":"2008-03-19T17:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2008\/03\/19\/magistrate-jailed-in-fraud-case\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T10:53:55","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T10:53:55","slug":"magistrate-jailed-in-fraud-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2008\/03\/19\/magistrate-jailed-in-fraud-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Magistrate jailed in fraud case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A WOLVERHAMPTON Magistrate has been jailed for eighteen months for fraud.<\/strong> <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Balbir Singh Sandhu, 62, told a businessman he had become aware of a \u201cfile\u201d investigating his business and for \u00a345,000 he would help make the case \u201cdisappear\u201d, Birmingham Crown Court was told. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Sandhu, a magistrate in Wolverhampton, warned Balbir Singh Mann he could face a possible prison sentence into the alleged employment of illegal workers at his factory in Wolverhampton. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The court was told in reality there was no such case.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The magistrate – a former bus driver – pleaded guilty to fraud by way of making false representations with a view for personal gain at a previous appearance. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Judge Robert Orme told Sandhu he had \u201cused and indeed abused the position of authority\u201d.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cUndoubtedly you will no longer be a magistrate. Your good standing in the community has gone and your pride and dignity affected\u201d, he said. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

“Your fall from grace is likely to be all the greater because of the pedestal upon which the local community appear to have placed you.” <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Amjad Nawaz told the court Sandhu contacted Mr Mann and made his aware of a \u201cfile\u201d against him. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

“He had access to where the files were kept. He effectively said that he could make it disappear if he would pay him and his associates a sum of \u00a345,000\u201d, Mr Nawaz said.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

“The defendant was a magistrate and had been for six years. He knew the complainant and had done for a number of years.” <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Sandhu originally met Mr Mann in February last year to discuss the plan. Subsequent phone calls were made by Sandhu providing further details of the plan. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

What the defendant wasn\u2019t aware of was that Mr Mann was secretly recording the telephone conversations. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

When Mr Mann passed the recordings onto police they arrested Sandhu moments after he arrived for another meeting with Mr Mann, the court was told. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

When officers searched his car they found a document which said the file had been destroyed. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Jas Mann, defending, said the defendant\u2019s \u201cstupidity\u201d had \u201ccost his everything\u201d.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

“He has lost his standing as a magistrate and also his standing in the community. He is doomed for the future to walk with his head bowed,” he said.\u00a0<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A WOLVERHAMPTON Magistrate has been jailed for eighteen months for fraud. Balbir Singh Sandhu, 62, told a businessman he had become aware of a \u201cfile\u201d investigating his business and for \u00a345,000 he would help make the case \u201cdisappear\u201d, Birmingham Crown Court was told. Sandhu, a magistrate in Wolverhampton, warned Balbir Singh Mann he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}