Eight people from Slough, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire charged in £81m fraud case

Alleged perpetrators of an £81 million fraud on the Royal Mail have appeared in court.

Eight defendants, including people from Slough, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and London, connected to four logistics companies are accused of abusing a self-declaration system for large postage firms by only declaring around a quarter of the mail actually sent through the post over a period of nine years, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

The alleged under-declaration allowed those involved to make unlawful profits and pass on some savings to customers to gain an advantageous market share, the court heard on Thursday.

The alleged fraud took place between May 2008 and May 2017 and caused estimated losses to the Royal Mail of around £81 million, the hearing was told.

No indication of pleas were given by any defendants, who were all bailed as the case was sent to Southwark Crown Court on January 7.

Daria Jankiewicz, 37, of Slough; Robert McSkimming, 33, of Aylesbury; Parmjeet Sandhu, 53, of Iver, Buckinghamshire; Lakwinder Sekhon, 39, of Isleworth, west London; Katarzyna Struzynska, 34, of Slough, and Balginder Singh Sandhu, 43, of Slough, are each charged with one count of conspiring to commit fraud by false representation.

Michelle Lucatello, 55, of Bicester, is accused of conspiring to commit fraud by false representation and conspiring to commit false accounting.

Narinder Sandhu, 59, of Beaconsfield, is accused of two counts of conspiring to commit fraud by false representation.

A ninth defendant, Jaswinder Sandhu, 58, of Beaconsfield, is charged with conspiring to commit false accounting over allegedly falsifying invoices.

The four companies involved in the alleged fraud are: Packpost International Ltd; Global Express Worldwide Ltd; Tiger International Logistics Ltd and Worldwide Transport Express Ltd.

Each firm is charged with conspiring together to commit fraud by false representation against postal operators, intending to cause a loss to Royal Mail and other postal operators or to expose them to loss.