Jailed ex-magistrate faces £4m payout

Jailed ex-magistrate faces £4m payout

A former magistrate who was jailed for a £35,000 fraud will face a financial confiscation hearing today which could force him to pay up to £4 million.

Accountant Nirmal Sharma, 51, of Langley Road, Slough, Berkshire, was found guilty at Winchester Crown Court in 2007 of seven counts of procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception, one count of false accounting and one charge of intending to pervert the course of justice.

He was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for the theft offences and nine months imprisonment for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Sharma, who sat at Slough Magistrates' Court, used his accounting business to steal from his friends who were clients from 1996 until 2003.

He embezzled cash from them because they trusted him to bill them for the correct amounts of tax and VAT.

But Sharma pretended they owed more and used the extra sums from them to pay other tax and VAT bills for other companies, or the money was paid to his brother.

After his conviction, the Thames Valley Police Economic Crime Unit (ECU) began a lengthy and complex investigation into his finances.

This was complicated by the fact that there had been substantial movement of funds involving millions of pounds transferred offshore and then moved through different jurisdictions and into stocks and shares, as well as commercial properties.

In December last year, Judge Michael Longbotham ruled that all of the assets are his criminal property, despite the fact that they are mostly held in the names of members of Sharma's immediate family.

The value of his benefit from criminal conduct has been established by the court at more than £4,000,000, Thames Valley Police said.

Judge Longbotham will decide the amount which will be confiscated from Sharma at the hearing due to take place at Southampton Crown Court.

If you cannot trust a magistrate, who the hell can you trust?