Birmingham woman convicted of stealing £50k from own charity
Rajbinder Kaur set up Sikh Youth UK (SYUK) in 2016 but stole donations made to the charity.
A woman from Birmingham has been convicted of stealing £50,000 from her own charity.
Rajbinder Kaur, 55, set up Sikh Youth UK (SYUK) in 2016 and organised fundraisers like a sponsored winter sleep out and a football tournament.
Kaur, formerly of Hamstead Road, received countless donations to the charity, but would transfer money from the SYUK bank to her own account to pay off personal debts. She also sent money to family members.
She had over 50 personal bank accounts to try to hide the stolen money.
Police said Kaur - who is a former banker - tried to portray herself as naive about finances.
Superintendent Annie Miller, from West Midlands Police, said: “SYUK was clearly a means to fund her lifestyle and pay her debts off, but in the simplest of terms Kaur was stealing large amounts of money that had been donated by local people for good causes."
Kaur's brother, Kaldip Singh, Lehal, with whom she set up the charity, was also convicted of knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information to the Charity Commission.
Supt Miller continued: “This has been a very long and complex investigation into fraud, and we have worked closely with the Charity Commission to bring this pair to justice.”
Yesterday (16 Sept), Kaur was convicted for money laundering, six counts of theft amounting to £50,000, and one count of knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information to the Charity Commision.
Kaur and Lehal are due to be sentenced in November.