Police are calling on drivers to come forward if they believe they are owed compensation after being victims of luxury car fraud.
An investigation into fraud by Devon and Cornwall Police uncovered that Ravinder Randhawa had committed fraud and money laundering offences, ultimately being sentenced to nine years in jail.
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Mr Randhawa had originally posed as a legitimate salesman after setting up a fake website where he claimed to be selling luxury cars for showrooms that didn’t exist.
Victims across the UK, including Sussex, were caught out and paid “significant sums” for luxury marques, including Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Range Rover.
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People who had given money to Mr Randhawa eventually realised that the cars didn’t exist when they went to collect them, or when they weren’t delivered.
In total, Mr Randhawa stole in excess of £1million from over 150 people, prompting the investigation by Devon and Cornwall Police.
The fraudster was found to have purchased expensive items or used his associate, Atif Shariff, to launder the money.
Mr Shariff was sentenced to 20 months for money laundering, but later faced a Proceeds of Crime probe in 2022.
It was determined that his criminal benefit was £16,520, but he had just £5 in available assets at the time.
However, financial investigators working within the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU) identified that Shariff had assets worth £13,000 in cash.
The team began the process of seizing the money and gaining his consent to have the cash designated to compensate victims.
Amanda Alldridge, asset confiscation and enforcement manager at SWROCU, called on people to take action to see if they were affected.
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She said: “We have been able to identify and partly compensate over 30 victims, but we would like to track down the remainder who were part of the prosecution process.
“We are asking for individuals from Sussex who think they may’ve been deceived by Randhawa’s scam between May 2018 and February 2021 to contact us as they could be entitled to compensation.
“The compensation value is likely to be small compared to their total loss, but my team are passionate about making sure money is paid back to those who were affected by the fraud.”
The South West Regional Organised Crime Unit has called for anyone suspected of being a victim to fill out a Compensation Registration Form.
This is as simple as providing their full name and asking whether that was their name at the time of the offence in 2021.
Similarly, the police force states that people can contact Crimestoppers anonymously if they have information about money laundering or know if people are benefitting from crime.
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