7:00 am, December 17, 2022
A fraudster jailed after making more than £1m via fake luxury car dealership websites only has to pay back just under £81,000.
Ravinder Randhawa cheated people by getting them to pay thousands as deposits for top-end vehicles, which he claimed to be selling at massively reduced prices.
The 30-year-old set up websites that were identical to real ones of luxury dealerships to reel in his victims.
He then duped them into giving him as much as £17,500 for the non-existent second-hand vehicles such as Porsches and Mercedes-Benzes, according to the Mid-Devon Advertiser.
But when they went to pick up their cars, they found there were no such showrooms. Some had even journeyed for up to five hours to get there.
In addition, some of Randhawa’s victims paid the full amount to guarantee delivery.
Customers who then tried getting refunds were taunted with sexual and racist slurs, with Randhawa also mocking them for ‘just [buying] a picture on the internet’.
A Muslim customer was even called a terrorist who should return to his country. Not only that but Randhawa also made what was described as a vile sexual reference to the man’s mother, said the newspaper.
Meanwhile, with the pandemic in full force, a health worker was told: ‘Don’t play the NHS card. Look at how many people are dying. Clapping NHS workers is a joke.’
A lot of the cash was laundered by Randhawa via jewellers, who then became victims as banks got back the fraudulent payments.
Randhawa, of London Road, Ashford, Middlesex, pleaded guilty to 22 charges of fraud and one of money laundering last year at Exeter Crown Court, where Recorder Kate Brunner put him behind bars for nine years.
He was back at the court, pictured, via video link on Thursday (December 15th) for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, which was told his criminal activities saw him benefit to the tune of £1,187,347.56.
All that was available now, though, was £80,981.61, a financial inquiry had discovered.
Randhawa was ordered by Judge David Evans to hand over the full amount within three months or else spend two more years in prison.
The scam, which Randhawa played out for three years after being released from prison following other fraud convictions, claimed more than 150 victims.
Devon and Cornwall Police took over the inquiry from the Metropolitan force as one of the victims was from Cornwall.
Detectives found that buyers had been made to send Randhawa images of their driving licences and passports. Their identities were then stolen by him and used to defraud others.
That then saw later victims wrongly labelling some of the earlier ones as scammers on social media.
In recent weeks and months, Car Dealer has reported several similar scams, including JDM Cars, Millers Car Sales and AD Car Sales.
The proprietors of the schemes set up websites by cloning legitimate dealerships, which were often dormant, and using fake customer reviews and details they copied from Companies House to appear genuine.
Yesterday (December 16), we also reported how another fake dealer had been forced to surrender his Porsche Panamera to police in order to raise money for his victims.
