Andy Giddings
BBC News, West Midlands
Rajbinder Kaur, 55, has been found guilty of stealing funds from the charity she established, Sikh Youth UK, with the assistance of her brother, Kaldip Singh Lehal, 43. Convicted at Birmingham Crown Court, Kaur misappropriated donations meant for good causes to pay off personal debts and send money to family members.
The trial revealed that Kaur faced six counts of theft and one count of money laundering. Both Kaur and Lehal were also found guilty of providing false or misleading information to the Charity Commission. Despite the charity being shut down due to insufficient information, Kaur continued to collect donations, which she siphoned off for personal use.
West Midlands Police reported that Kaur, a former bank employee, opened over 50 personal bank accounts to obscure the trail of the stolen funds. Superintendent Annie Miller emphasized that Kaur’s attempts to present herself as financially naive were misleading, stating, “In the simplest of terms, Kaur was stealing large amounts of money that had been donated by local people for good causes.”
Kaur and Lehal are set to be sentenced on November 21.
