Express
March 28, 2014
A pair of crooked businesswomen who met the Queen and two prime ministers have admitted their part in a £200,000 education charity fraud.
They founded a recruitment business which enabled them to rub shoulders with David Cameron and Gordon Brown, Prince Charles, Chancellor George Osborne and former Dragons’ Den tycoon James Caan.
But the success of Ranjit Uppelle and Kavita Jnagal was built on dishonesty, a court heard.
Along with accomplices, they invented an army of “ghost students” under a contract with the Government-funded Learndirect charity.
They raked in thousands of pounds in commission from the charity by faking enrolments and exam results for online adult education courses set up to give people vocational training.
Fake profiles were created and hundreds of people are thought to have been enrolled on courses without their knowledge. Around £200,000 is believed to have been defrauded between March and November 2010.
Uppelle, 41, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, and Jnagal, 37, of Rugeley, Staffs, both admitted conspiracy to defraud. They were given suspended jail terms of nine and six months respectively at London’s Southwark Crown Court. Both were also ordered to pay £1,000 costs.
The sentences brought a shameful end to the careers of the women who were introduced to the Queen at an Asian Women of Achievement reception at Buckingham Palace.