A fraudster who persuaded people to buy properties he did not own has been jailed for 10 years.
According to a police statement, Anopkumar Maudhoo used several aliases to carry out the large-scale conveyancing fraud offering investment opportunities in supposedly repossessed properties or the redevelopment of plots of land. In reality these properties had not been repossessed and the genuine owners had no idea their homes were for sale.
Maudhoo, from Wapping in east London, is thought to have made more than £8.5m which he spent on a lavish lifestyle: investigators seized a speedboat at St Katherine Docks and 19 high-value cars including Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Aston Martins.
Police found he had orchestrated the sale of 75 buildings or development plots since 2021, with victims located in north London, Hertfordshire and Essex.
Maudhoo was arrested in September 2024 by officers from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit. He was found with identity documents for several aliases including Vincent Leboeuf, Pascal Burns and Yusef Khan. He controlled various companies to create the impression he had unique access to empty properties and created a fictional paper trail by pretending to liaise with contacts in the planning or conveyancing process.
Maudhoo, 46, was jailed last week at Southwark Crown Court after admitting to 31 charges of fraud and asking for a further 45 offences to be taken into consideration.
Detective Inspector Damian Barlow said: ‘Maudhoo went to great lengths to cover his tracks and hide his true identity, causing untold harm to a high number of unsuspecting victims. He was purely motivated by greed, using the proceeds to fund his own lifestyle.
‘This was a complex investigation which involved our teams poring through evidence to piece together the sophisticated criminality that had been taking place – the further we delved, the more offences we uncovered.’
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