£1m Parmar fraud trial concludes

Just one of the two subcontractors accused of  helping a convicted conman Paul Parmar take the construction industry for a £1m ride was found guilty of two charges of conspiracy.

 

Fatah Bhalla, of Northumberland Ave, Isleworth, who’s company was Advanced Distribution Ltd (ADL) will be sentenced with conman Parmar of Kensington Heights, Harrow, who admitted the charges at the start of the eight-week trial at Isleworth Crown Court.  They will appear at the court in December.

 

After a week’s deliberation, the jury failed to reach verdicts on a deception charge against Bhalla and charges of deception and conspiracy, against Aytac Asaf, of Blackfen, Sidcup, who’s firm, AJ Construction,  was used by Parmar in three projects.  Asaf will probably face a re-trial in the new year.

 

Parmar’s wife Sonal,  who was said to have shared a “lavish lifestyle” with him, financed by the fraud, was cleared of living on the proceeds of crime by the jury last week and fled the dock in tears..

 

Fresh out of prison where he served a four-year sentence for a similar fraud, “Parmar posed as an experienced quantity surveyor in the construction industry,”  prosecutor  Michael Holland said.  “He was a convicted fraudster, who applied for senior positions within the industry, which paid attractive salaries upwards of £40,000.  In less than two years he worked for three different companies and defrauded them of about £900,000.”

 

The companies were Frederick Sage & Co, a subsidiary of Pirin-based in Alperton, Coffey Construction of Southgate and Pel Project Management in Birmingham.

 

“He obtained jobs where he would have control of all who worked for the companies as subcontractors.  As a convicted and able fraudster he had an impressive interview technique.  He was a professional conman.

 

“He would employ a subcontractor who did no work at all or very little work and he would authorise payment for work that had not been done and he would create a paper trail to ensure the payments were made and then, of course, the money would be gone,” counsel said.

 

“Queries would inevitably arise.  But he could bluff – he could bluff for England.  In the meantime the fraud would go on.

 

“But this is a fraud with a shelf-life,” Mr Holland said.  “At the end of the day, more money was going out to subcontractors than was going into the contract.  The shelf-life was about six months until somebody would finally start asking searching questions. Parmar would then resign and depart with the paperwork.

 

“The company would then know something was wrong.  But Paul Parmar had gone and records were missing and incomplete”. For this reason firms did not pursue the matter because they were unable to prove on their own paperwork that sub-contractors had been overpaid or had done no work.  “The records were not there and Paul Parmar was not going to tell them,” counsel said.

 

But finally Parmar and Bhalla “got greedy” and took “hundreds of thousands of pounds”, counsel said.  “Other companies wrote off their losses rather than risk taking legal action against subcontractors. It was only the last company, Pel Project Management, that lost so much they went to the police.”

 

Mr Holland explained how the subcontractors had to be “in on it” or there would have been no gain for Parmar. An honest subcontractor would not expect payment for no work and if he was overpaid,  would pay it back.         

 

Bhalla told the court: “I had no doubts or reservations. At no stage did I think Paul Parmar was acting dishonestly. I was not in any sort of scheme or criminal enterprise to do anything dishonest with Paul Parmar. I behaved correctly and honestly at all times”.

 

Bhalla went into business with him when Parmar was working first for Coffey and then PPM.  They went 50-50  on the shares of an ‘of-the-shelf’ company, ADL, and Parmar’s shares were held on trust by Bhalla who did not question the arrangement.

 

Bhalla was remanded in custody for pre-sentence reports.