Six people from Bradford have been jailed today for their part in a conspiracy to defraud two financial organisations and a credit reference agency.
Asif Budhia [28] of was sentenced to 4-years and 5 months after pleading guilty to conspiring to defraud Bradford and Bingley and Santander (formerly Abbey National plc).
Soyeb Budhia
Soyeb Budhia [26] of received a sentence of 3-years and 8 months after pleading guilty to conspiring to defraud Bradford and Bingley and credit assessment company, Equifax – a company used by the West Yorkshire Police for investigative purposes.
For offences relating to a conspiracy to defraud the former Abbey National, Altaf Kasam [22] was sentenced to 12 months in prison, A 24-year-old man, a 21-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man received 9 months in prison suspended for 12 months.
A sum of £478,500 was stolen from the Bradford and Bingley during the conspiracy and between January and March 2008, a total of £16,400 was defrauded from Abbey.
On Tuesday 3rd May, a 44 year old man from Middlesbrough was jailed for 12 months while a 31 year old man from Stafford and a 32 year old man from Blackburn were given suspended sentences having been convicted of money laundering offences at Bradford Crown Court.
Asif Budhia
DC Chris Stephens of the Force’s Economic Crime Unit, said: “This investigation started out as an internal enquiry at the Bradford and Bingley with whom Asif Budhia was an employee.
“It was soon established that Budhia had recruited his brother, Soyeb, to act as a genuine customer of the bank and request loan entitlements to be transferred to a different bank account.
“Soyeb also sent faxes from his workplace at Equifax to request a change of correspondence addresses and beneficiary accounts held at the Bradford and Bingley before the transactions were made. We also established that he had reset three dormant accounts belonging to West Yorkshire Police.
“The 22-year-old Bradford man was an employee at the former Abbey bank, and passed customer account details to Asif Budhia. Approximately £16,400 was stolen from the bank as a result of this conspiracy and was passed to the 24-year-old and 23-year-old man and the 21-year-old woman from Bradford who were all beneficiaries in this conspiracy.
DC Stephens added: “This was a complex enquiry and we have worked closely with the three organisations affected to help us unveil the several strands to the conspiracy. The Budhias and Kasam abused their position of trust as employees of a financial institution and I welcome the justice served today.”
