Southwark Crown Court Sentencing Results

Jignesh Patel, a pharmacist who owned Wise Pharmacy and Actipharm Limited, was involved in a £1.3m NHS prescription fraud. Between January 2015 and November 2017, Wise Pharmacy dispensed 1,639 false prescriptions in the names of 24 GPs for 440 patients, covering high-cost medicines such as Noxafil and Sprycel. The medicines obtained through false prescriptions were sold on to European pharmaceutical wholesalers. He was arrested on 6 December 2017 and gave a no-comment interview.

Rahil Patel acted as a Responsible Person for Actipharm Ltd and was involved in a £1.3m NHS prescription fraud. False NHS prescriptions were used to obtain high-cost medicines that were then sold to European pharmaceutical wholesalers. Text messages between him and a co-defendant about obtaining false prescriptions and drugs formed part of the evidence. He was interviewed under caution on 14 February 2020 and answered no comment.

Thomas Elrick was employed by NHS Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group between April 2017 and December 2020 as Assistant Managing Director for Planned and Unscheduled Care. Between August 2018 and December 2020, he authorised and approved invoices from Tree of Andre Therapy Services Limited totalling £564,484.80 for services that were never delivered. The company was controlled by Elrick and payments were made into his own bank account. He attempted to cover up the fraud by sending an email purporting to be from the company using the email address of his deceased wife. He later admitted the fraud was committed for financial gain and had become an addiction.

Kuldip Singh, a serving Metropolitan Police officer, was part of a group that staged deliberate vehicle collisions and made fraudulent personal injury and vehicle damage claims. On 11 March 2016, a delivery van driven by another group member collided with a car Singh was driving; his four passengers were also involved in the scam, leading to five fraudulent personal injury claims totalling £33,362. Singh also ran a car hire company and made false insurance claims: after a rented Mercedes crashed, he falsely alleged a burglary to claim £16,145. He also falsely reported leased cars as cloned to avoid liability for collisions and traffic tickets, and made a false police report entered on the police database. He was dismissed by the Metropolitan Police in November 2017, fled the country, and was extradited from Georgia in March 2026.

Richard Courtenay fraudulently obtained £450,000 in Covid bounce back loans by making nine applications of £50,000 each between May and June 2020 for five linked hotel companies. He made fraudulent declarations about turnover and applied for multiple loans when businesses were only allowed one. He failed to use the funds for business purposes and transferred them into personal accounts or accounts of his other companies.

Raymond Simpson assisted Steven Long's fraudulent business activities and was convicted of fraud by abuse of position. The court found he had helped Long in the fraudulent scheme and had acted to make a personal profit without taking risk. He refused to leave his home in Portugal for trial and was tried in his absence.

Between 2008 and 2018, Steven Long ran multiple business ventures under the Universal Wealth Preservation banner and linked companies. He targeted elderly and vulnerable people through door-to-door leaflets and hotel seminars, offering trusts, wills and Lasting Power of Attorney services. Clients were promised secure, ring-fenced, risk-free investments, but Long diverted their money into high-risk overseas investments without consent. More than 100 victims lost a total of £11,577,762, and Long used the proceeds to fund holidays in the USA and Dubai, properties and other personal spending.

Anthony Ikenwe was part of a gang that impersonated police officers to defraud eight victims of more than £4 million in cryptocurrency. Victims were told their cryptocurrency was at risk and were persuaded to provide account details or transfer funds to accounts they believed were secure police accounts. The gang used convincing fake police websites and laundered stolen funds through a complex financial network. Officers identified more than £1 million in cryptocurrency linked to wallets controlled by Anthony Ikenwe.

Hamza Bashir was part of a gang that impersonated police officers to defraud eight victims of more than £4 million in cryptocurrency. Victims were persuaded to provide account details or transfer funds to accounts they believed were secure police accounts. The gang used convincing fake police websites and laundered stolen funds through a complex financial network. Hamza Bashir initially denied involvement and stood trial before changing his plea to guilty on the eighth day of proceedings.

Kevin Nwamma was part of a gang that impersonated police officers to defraud eight victims of more than £4 million in cryptocurrency. Victims were told their cryptocurrency was at risk and were persuaded to provide account details or transfer funds to accounts they believed were secure police accounts. The gang used convincing fake police websites and laundered stolen funds through a complex financial network. Investigators traced criminal proceeds to Kevin Nwamma by identifying transfers from wallets containing stolen cryptocurrency into bank accounts associated with his luxury chauffeur and transport business.

Adam Mejri used a previous tenant's identity documents to take over a flat near Grenfell Tower. He attempted to claim from the £5,000 Grenfell support fund but failed due to identity concerns, and he made fraudulent benefits and council support claims totalling more than £160,000. He also redirected the genuine tenant's post and sub-let the flat for £1,200 a month.

Steven Bullen, 51, of Marbella, Spain, formerly of Hornchurch, Essex, was sentenced for importing, producing and supplying large quantities of cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamine over a 10-month period. An NCA-led investigation linked him to Encrochat handles and found he smuggled 1.1 tonnes of cocaine into the UK between August 2019 and May 2020, conspired to supply 410kg of cocaine and 242kg of ecstasy, and had access to chemicals capable of producing up to 2,250kg of amphetamine. He was arrested in Spain in April 2025 and extradited to the UK in August 2025.

Zak Archbold, 30, of Braintree, Essex, was a courier company team leader at a depot in Stanford-le-Hope. He conspired with a drug trafficker to smuggle cocaine from the Netherlands into the UK, using advance notice of Border Force inspections to swap labels on parcels containing cocaine. He helped move around 28 parcels containing up to 12kg of cocaine each and was due to be paid £750 per kilogram of cocaine successfully smuggled.

Ariana Rose posed as a house-sitter and a landlady to defraud victims and steal valuable possessions. While entrusted to look after properties, she stole jewellery, war medals, a CBE, limited-edition books and other items, sometimes replacing them with counterfeits. Her fraud totalled approximately £67,000, which she used to fund foreign holidays, luxury meals, designer clothing and a Rolex watch. Officers recovered stolen items from her property after her arrest.

Steven Brookes made six fraudulent Bounce Back Loan applications across five companies between May and October 2020, obtaining £300,000 while disqualified as a company director. He inflated or fabricated turnover figures and used a family member's identity without their knowledge to conceal his involvement. Funds were spent on family holidays, private school fees, an Audi, personalised number plates, and other personal spending. Only £7,494 has been repaid.

Daniel Pugh, a 'finfluencer', defrauded 238 investors out of £1.3 million by using Facebook adverts to promise unrealistic returns of 1.4 per cent a day, 7 per cent a week or 350 per cent a year. Running the scheme from his bedroom in Devon, he claimed returns would be generated by trading across various markets. Only 19 per cent of funds collected were actually traded, and the scheme operated as a Ponzi scheme with another individual. Pugh received £96,000 from the scheme, spending it on designer clothes, restaurants and cash withdrawals. He continued to attract investors even as the scheme collapsed.

Andrew Crowley, 45, from Gloucestershire, attempted to sell three fake Bronze Age stone Cycladic figures through Sotheby's auction house in London. He approached Sotheby's in October 2022, claiming the sculptures were around 3,000 years old. Specialists identified discrepancies in the sculptures and suspicious documentation, and the auction house alerted the Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiques Unit. Investigators found invoices purportedly from 1976 were printed with a typeface created only in 2001, and the logo was artist-drawn rather than stamped. Crowley was arrested at Sotheby's New Bond Street in July 2023, and the sculptures were seized before they could be sold for up to £500,000.

Gabriela Stan, a 25-year-old organised crime gang member, stole more than £116,000 worth of beauty products from Boots stores in London and across the UK between April and December 2025. A multi-force investigation linked her to 50 high-value thefts using mobile phone data, ANPR, facial recognition and CCTV. She was charged with 14 offences and admitted involvement in 36 further offences while remanded at HMP Bronzefield.

Roland Duffield, dubbed Exotic Painter on EncroChat, bought cocaine usually by the kilo. He met with Gearing to split drugs and exchange money. Arrested at his home on July 6, 2022, with drugs found on him.

On November 7, 2024, at around 10pm, Enzo Conticello stole a Givenchy handbag from the victim while she was in the smoking area of the Dog and Duck pub in Bateman Street, Soho. The handbag, worth £1,600, contained an emerald-encrusted Faberge egg and watch set valued at up to £2.2 million belonging to the Craft Irish Whiskey Company, along with a £1,500 Apple laptop, Apple AirPods, a £350 store voucher, keys, three bank cards, £200 worth of make-up, a £150 Mulberry card holder, and £20 in cash. Conticello attempted to use the stolen bank cards shortly after, triggering a fraud alert. He claimed he handed the bag over to buy drugs due to his cocaine addiction and did not intend to steal the high-value items, unaware of their worth. The Faberge items have not been recovered. Insurers paid £106,700 to the company.