Baljinder Singh [2019] EWCA Crim 1428

The applicant pleaded guilty to one offence of transferring criminal property and was sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment. He was the sole director of a UK company with links to an Indian company purporting to provide technical support. Computer users were fraudulently made to think they had a virus and encouraged to pay for the technical support. The applicant pleaded guilty on a lengthy basis. In interview, he said he had transferred large sums of money to India and deducted a 10% fee for doing so. The total sum of money he retained amounted to £38,665.

It was submitted on his behalf that the sentencing judge failed to pay sufficient heed to the basis of plea and wrongly applied the guidelines in finding medium culpability.

Held: the guidelines were correctly applied and appropriately considered, the sentence was consistent with the basis of plea and could not be viewed as excessive. The applications were dismissed.