Cruel scammer mocks victims who bought flash cars that never even existed
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A cruel £1 million conman who mocked his victims after selling them non-existent cars has been jailed for nine years.
Ravinder Randhawa set up a string of fake websites which looked identical to those of luxury car dealers and swindled 150 customers who were duped by them.
Customers paid up to £17,500 for nearly-new Range Rovers, Mercedes-Benzes, Porsches and other luxury cars which were sold at big discounts.
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Some only paid deposits and travelled up to five hours across Britain to collect their cars, only to find the garages did not exist.
Randhawa made buyers send him images of their passports and driving licences and then stole their identities and used them when he scammed other victims.
Some of them not only lost thousands of pounds but were wrongly identified as scammers on social media by later victims.
Randhawa taunted customers who asked for their money back with racist and sexual slurs, and calling them silly mugs who had ‘just bought a picture on the internet.'
He told one health worker during the height of the Covid pandemic: “Don’t play the NHS card. Look at how many people are dying. Clapping NHS workers is a joke.”
(Image: DevonLive)
He called one Muslim customer a terrorist who should go back to his own country and used the P word before making a vile sexual reference to his mother.
He told another: “You stupid P***, go eat bacon.”
Randhawa hid his tracks by laundering the money through other people’s accounts and by diverting payments to jewellery stores where he had set up accounts.
He then bought gold bars and Rolex watches which were worth tens of thousands of pounds and arranged for a henchman to pick them up. He posed on Instagram wearing one of the watches.
The jewellers also lost money because banks tried to claw back cash or listed them as being involved in fraud.
The scam went on for three years with more than 150 victims and was unravelled by detectives from the Devon and Cornwall force who took over the inquiry from the Met because one of the victims came from Cornwall.
Randhawa, aged 30, of London Road, Ashford, Middlesex, admitted 22 counts of fraud and one of money laundering and was jailed for nine years by Recorder Miss Kate Brunner at Exeter Crown Court.
She told him: ”This was a highly sophisticated fraud carried out over many years and right across the country.
“There are many tragic stories in the victims’ statements about the sacrifices they had made to save the money which you stole. It had a profound effect on them and their sense of security and trust.
“Your offending was deeply unpleasant because of the element of disdain and unkindness, making people travel across the country to garages that did not exist.
“You taunted and mocked the victims when they found out; laughing at them and telling them they had been scammed and that they were mugs. You abused them sexually and racially.”
The judge set a timetable under the Proceeds of Crime Act which will lead to the seizure of any assets that can be traced.
The judge commended the Devon and Cornwall police operation which broke down his attempts to hide his identity.
Mr David Sapiecha, prosecuting, said Randhawa set up the scam shortly after coming out of jail for earlier fraud offences in 2018 and ran it until 2020.
He advertised cars on the internet on sites which were indistinguishable from genuine luxury showrooms and then strung along potential buyer.
Many only lost a deposit but others were conned into paying the full price to ensure delivery. Many were fooled into giving personal details which enabled Randhawa to steal their identities and use them in future scams.
A large proportion of the cash was laundered through jewellers, who also became victims of the scam when some banks retrieved fraudulent payments.
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One jeweller in Brighton helped police track down Randhawa after finding a picture of him showing off the Rolex which they sold him on Instagram.
When police raided Randhawa’s home in February, they found he had flushed several Sim cards down the toilet. They recovered only fake Rolexes because he had either sold or hidden the real ones.
Mr Rishy Panesar, defending, said Randhawa had lived a double life, caring for his severely ill mother at home while organising the frauds.
He said he had been a semi professional footballer with Woking FC and worked as a delivery driver but turned to crime in an attempt to create a perfect home life with his Canadian wife.
After the case, Detective Chief Inspector Dave Pebworth said: “Today’s sentence is as a result of hundreds of hours of dedicated and relentless investigation by Torbay CID, who have been committed to gaining justice for many victims stretching across the UK.
“I would particularly like to thank all the victims who have suffered at the hands of Mr Randhawa and his associates for their bravery.
“Fraud is often a hidden crime, but its impact is far-reaching; leaving some of the most vulnerable in our society at risk of significant harm.
“While this investigation was a Devon and Cornwall Police-led operation, many other forces came together to ensure justice for the victims and I extend my thanks to them and the Crown Prosecution Service in achieving this result.”
Two associates who helped in the scam were jailed last month.
Gilbert, aged 55, of Erdington Hall Road, Birmingham, and Shariff, aged 33, of Bents Close, Bedford, admitted money laundering and were jailed for 27 and 20 months respectively by Judge Peter Johnson at Exeter Crown Court.
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Penzance antiques dealer aiming for fortune from Pokemon cards
It’s the late 90s card game that kept kids busy for hours.
Now Pokemon cards are making a comeback, but this time they’re worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
You read it correctly, those cards you bought as a teenager from your local newsagent could now buy you a house to get a piece of the action.
The market for vintage Pokemon cards is through the roof, that’s why Penzance antiques dealer Neil Potter is digging through people’s attics.
He told CornwallLive: “We recently went on a house visit and got offered a collection of Pokemon cards.
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“It wasn’t something we were particularly buying at the time, but I had a proper chat and looked at the collection.
“It turned out it was a very expensive and rare collection, the couple basically found them in their son’s belongings who was moving out.”
Neil, of Cash Your Clutter in Penzance, said he had originally attended the house to buy some jewellery, but he soon found out the Pokemon cards were worth more.
He said: “We went there to buy some jewellery and they pointed to the Pokemon cards and said all this stuff is going to the charity shop, do you want to see if there’s anything you would like to buy.
“I said let me do some more research and we’ll figure it out.
“So I took the Pokemon collection away and the long story short is the collection was worth £2,000 to £3,000.”
Neil said Pokemon cards have seen a “massive resurgence” over the last three to four years.
He said the most expensive card to be sold last year was a first edition Charizard card, which was sold for $220,000.
Neil explained: “People are buying them to recapture their childhood, but some people are investing in them for the future.
“They’re considered by others, especially some of the older cards, to be impressive artwork.
“As opposed to playing with them, people are having them graded (valued) and collecting them.”
Neil said it’s all about the condition, age and rarity of the cards.
He said: “Average Pokemon cards are really worth nothing, but a lot of people tend to throw albums of Pokemon cards away, you can sometimes find them in charity shops.
“People don’t realise how valuable they are because when we were kids you could buy them for 20p a pack, they were never something you spend a lot of money on.
“They don’t understand that in the space of 20 to 25 years they’ve gone from being sold for 20p to £1 to being worth enough to buy a house in some cases.”
He added: “The ones that manage to survive in good condition are the ones that sell for a premium.”
Neil said the collection he recently bought included cards from the first base set to ever be released.
He said: “Some of the cards were almost completely destroyed because they had been played with so much, but others survived well.
“The first base set is the one everyone wants.
“It doesn’t take many cards to add up to £2,000 to £3,000.”
Neil said the couple he bought the Pokemon cards from couldn’t believe how much they are worth.
Neil explained: “That’s why it’s so shocking for people when they have a collection of gold jewellery and you’ll be telling them it’s worth £300 but the album of Pokemon cards is worth £500, they can’t get their heads around it.
“Those bits of cards you bought in the newsagents or from WHSmith are worth more than the gold jewellery.”
Neil said he will now be stocking vintage Pokemon cards in his shop in Penzance.
He said: “We do collectables as well as antiques, we’ve never really pigeonholed ourselves.
“This is a really good opportunity for us to expand what we do and we’ve got a great cabinet to put them in.”
He said they will also be grading cards, which is when you send them off to a a professional card valuer.
He said those are the cards that collectors will pay a lot of money for.
He added: “We’ll have some cards in here which are worth 50p so you won’t have to spend much money, but we’ll also have some that are worth several hundred pounds too.
“Hopefully it will bring in a whole new wave of collectors for the future.”
He is also encouraging people to check their attics to see if they have any old collections lying around.
He said: “If they remember collecting Pokemon cards as kids or their sons or daughters have collected them, the best thing to do is give us a call and we can have a chat with them about what they’ve got and arrange for us to come and see them.
“We will visit them free of charge anywhere in Cornwall and they can come and see us, I can look at the collection and say they are worth XYZ and they can decide what they want to do, sell them to us, or if they want to keep them, but at least they will know what they’re worth.”
Neil said often when Pokemon card albums go to charity shops they’re sold in a folder for £5 to £10.
He said: “If a charity shop gets a bag full of toys and they see a folder of Pokemon cards, most will put them out for £2, £5 maybe £10, but nobody wins then.
“The charity shop doesn’t win and the people donating the collection don’t win.
“The lady and gentleman who sold us their collection said well what we’ll do is we’ll take your offer and give £200 to the charity we were going to donate them to.”
Neil added: “The charity is far better off, the customer is far better off and we make some money too.”
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