A chartered accountant, who conned his new internet girlfriend out of £4,300 by claiming he was dying from stomach cancer, has received a suspended prison sentence.
Badal Arun Hindocha, 34, sent messages including: “If I don’t solve this problem, I’m dead. I’ve collapsed again. I’m dead.”
The accountancy and financing graduate - employed by a Canary Wharf firm - told Tina Mistry he lost income due to missing work to attend hospital appointments.
Hindocha, of Oakways, Eltham pleaded guilty to fraud between January 30, 2017 and March 7, 2018 and was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months.
He must also complete 280 hours community service and pay Ms Mistry, who he met on an internet dating site, £6,000 compensation.
“She hoped to form a fulfilling relationship and saw you as a prospective partner and not someone who caused her judgement of people to be shaken,” Croydon Crown Court Judge Elizabeth Smaller told Hindocha.
“You have taken advantage of her trust that you were genuinely ill and had even witnessed your cousin dying and you had a terminal illness and over six weeks caused her to make eleven bank transfers to you.
“You even engaged someone else to tell her you were on medical life-support and she should not contact you again.
“She must have been wondering if you were dead or alive, but then saw you were back on that dating website.
“She thought it was a genuine romance and you committed a fraud on her vulnerability and trust.”
Ms Mistry told the police: “It has made me feel very upset that I had been used and taken advantage of. I did not think he could lie and fake that he had cancer.”
Prosecutor Mr. Iestyn Morgan told the court the pair began dating in December, 2017. “After two months the defendant said he was off work due to medical operations and was short of money and struggling to meet bills.
“He told her he was very weak and ill, couldn’t consume food and said that he had stomach cancer, which was not true.”
Hindocha even invented another story that his cousin was a car accident victim and he was holding her hand as she passed away in hospital.
His lawyer Imran Khan said the money was spent on installing a downstairs toilet for his disabled parents.
Hindocha has a Masters from Middlesex University and has lost his ACCA accreditation to practice as a chartered accountant as a result the fraud.
“What started out as an offer he took advantage of and that was stupid,” the lawyer told the court. “He’s tearful, stressful and terrified about what will happen today.”
Judge Smaller said: “This was a fraud upon someone that was trusting and involved the manipulation of someone’s good sense and hopes and preyed on hopes that she had a future with the defendant.”
No comments:
Post a Comment