Narinder Kaur, who turned shoplifting into a full time job, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for duping top UK retailers for £500,000 (approximately Rs 5 crore). Also known as Nina Tiara, the 54-year-old scammed over 1,000 stores within four years’ time across the UK. Kaur has a history of stealing items since her teenage years, she targeted major brands like Boots, Debenhams, John Lewis, Monsoon, House of Fraser and TK Maxx between July 2015 and September 2019. Her fraudulent activity involved entering stores, taking products and then asking for refunds as if she had purchased them previously. Her actions were caught on CCTV and when the court was shown footage, they gave her a hefty prison sentence.
As per The Guardian, during the police investigation, authorities recovered £150,000 (approximately Rs 1 crore) in cash and other stolen items at Kaur’s home in a Wiltshire village. At Gloucester Crown Court, Judge Lawrie described Kaur a “thoroughly dishonest individual,” and compared her fraud with an “Olympian scale.” Reportedly, she even used 17 different names and following the expose, she was found guilty of 26 charges, including fraud, money laundering and attempting to interfere with justice.
In a statement released by West Mercia police, a fraud investigator, Steve Tristram said, “Kaur is a calculated individual who committed offences across the country, dishonestly claiming refunds on items she had stolen. She showed no remorse for her actions and even thought she would get away with submitting false documents to the court with the intention of perverting the course of justice. West Mercia Police took ownership of the investigation into Narinder Kaur in 2018. Working with National Business Crime Solution, an organisation representing retailers, and other police forces as a multi-agency approach, we were able to investigate further into her criminal activity and found fraudulent activity in her bank accounts which subsequently brought her to justice.”
Police estimated that between 2015 and 2019, Narinder Kaur illegally obtained about £2,000 (approximately Rs 2 lakh) in refunds every week, which is close to £500,000 (approximately Rs 5 crore) of fraud money. Despite being under investigation for the crimes, the woman started a new scam by targeting other businesses, by using stolen credit card details from innocent individuals to commit more fraud.
According to Daily Mail, Narinder Kaur’s biggest fraud involved boots, where she managed to get £60,787 (approximately Rs 64 lakh) in refunds. She also received £42,853.65 (approximately Rs 45 lakh) from Debenhams, despite spending just £3,681.33 (approximately Rs 3 lakh) in four years.
The woman also scammed John Lewis for £33,131.61 (approximately Rs 35 lakh) and claimed £23,000 (approximately Rs 24 lakh) from Monsoon stores in various regions. She tricked Homesense for £18,000 (approximately Rs 19 lakh), TK Maxx of around £14,500 (approximately Rs 15 lakh) and Homebase of £3,200 (approximately Rs 3 lakh). The court also claimed that Kaur attempted to cheat Wiltshire Council for £7,400 (approximately Rs 7 lakh) by making overpayments with stolen credit card details.
Comments
0 comment