Taxi Driver Online

St Albans taxi driver jailed for £150,000 council con


A St Albans taxi driver has been jailed for ten months for conning the county council out of more than £150,000 in fake taxi journeys for the vulnerable.

Waqar Khan, 29, of Westbourne Road, Luton, sent bogus invoices in relation to a schoolgirl and a man with learning difficulties.

Khan denied two charges of converting criminal property and one of transferring criminal property.

He was convicted by a jury at St Albans Crown Court last month.

Prosecutor Laura Blackband told the court that between 2003 and 2006, Khan billed Hertfordshire County Council for legitimate journeys, taking the young girl to the local school and back and the man to Digswell Nursery.

For each return trip he earned a daily rate of anything between £48.50 and £100 - an agreed rate between the council and Khan.

'Taken advantage'

The agreement was cancelled in December 2006 but he continued to invoice the council for £150,000 in taxi services.

Ms Blackband told the jury that Khan seized the opportunity to earn illegal money when the council mistakenly contacted him in July 2007 asking where his invoices were for the last seven months.

"At that stage Khan realised that the council were operating at fault, they didn't realise that they shouldn't have been asking about these journeys," she said.

"He has effectively taken advantage of that and made up all these invoices and billed the council for them."

Khan then sent in a string of backdated invoices for trips that had never occurred, which continued into 2008, it was alleged.

He told the jury that he had acted "honestly, reliably and accurately", saying another person in his office did the invoicing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-be ... s-19911380

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

As I don't understand the charges, how do they relate to sending in invoices for work that had not been carried out?

_________________
Grandad,

Clerical error I bet?

Did he have a interpretor in court with him?

Its a wonder he didnt leg it back to Talibanland and live like a king on the £150K

I hope someone at the council has been sacked

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

The thing I don't understand is surely someone at the council should have been checking invoices that is an awful lot of bogus journeys to add up to £150K

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

It was deception to send in the invoices, and fraud for accepting the payment.

_________________
IDFIMH

Council finance assistant Mrs Khan, 28, of Westbourne Road, Luton, said "a simple clerical error"

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Yes I can see that this is what he did but what exactly do the actual charges mean?

_________________
Grandad,

See if this helps, because I too find the charges difficult to understand.

From the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 Part 7 - Money Laundering Offences

Section 327 offence - Concealing criminal property etc.

Section 327 simplifies and replaces S.49 of the Drug Trafficking Act 1994 and S.93C of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. See (Archbold 2006 33-11)

The actus reus of the offence under S.327 is:

• concealing criminal property;
• disguising criminal property;
• converting criminal property;
• transferring criminal property;
• removing criminal property from England and Wales.

It is an either way offence. A person convicted of an offence under this section is liable to imprisonment for 14 years or a fine or both.

Concealing or disguising criminal property is defined as concealing or disguising its nature, source, location, disposition, movement or ownership or any rights with respect to it [POCA section 327(3)].

As noted above the offender has to "know or suspect" that the criminal property represents a benefit from criminal conduct (by virtue of section 340 POCA). The prosecution can also rely on circumstantial evidence from which a jury can draw inferences that the defendant had the necessary knowledge or suspicion.

It is necessary therefore to prove:

• the act of concealing, disguising etc;
• in relation to property;
• which was a benefit from criminal conduct; and
• that the defendant knew or suspected that the property represented a benefit from criminal conduct.

Defences to section 327 offence

It should be noted that an offence is not committed if a person makes an "authorised disclosure" under S.338 to a constable, a customs officer, or a nominated officer. This will absolve disclosures, such as suspicious transaction reports to the police and to designated compliance officers within companies made within the requisite timescales in S.338. The defence also applies to those who intended to make such a disclosure but had a reasonable excuse for not doing so.

S.327 also exonerates acts done in carrying out a function relating to enforcement of any provision of the Act, or of any other enactment relating to criminal conduct or benefit from criminal conduct. It is not uncommon for the police or other enforcement authorities to take possession of criminal property in the course of their official duties and to convert or transfer it, e.g. into an interest bearing account pending further investigation.

Source; http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/proc ... aundering/

It's still clear as mud to me, but I suspect this part of the law was used, because it was the only charge they could get him on.

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

It was verging on the Criminally stupid/negligent of the council to be passing them fit for payment.

If I'm as much as penny out on my Invoices the council returns them for re-submission.

£150/day plus vat

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Not another Brit in trouble.

Aye..an Anglo Saxon at his best..

//Bleedin amateur he should have worked at Nat West the ENGLISH crooks there nicked £180 billion YOUR paying it back really clever eh

_________________
All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

remind me what the "S" stands for in RBS.......

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most