The BBC reported last week that “fraud victims 'failed' as criminals 'operate with impunity'” according to a report by ex-Met Police Deputy Commissioner Sir Craig Mackey. The report found fraud now accounts for one-in-three crimes - but just 2% are detected.
Chances are if you’re reading this article, you or a member of your family has been a victim of fraud. We British Indians are of course a wealthy community, or at least, have savings and so a common target.
What is less known is, the perpetrators can be from our community too. After all, who would a victim more trust?
So it was that Maulik contacted me, with a story of how he and his friends had been allegedly defrauded. Maulik is a doctor here in the UK. I say ‘allegedly’ not because I do not believe him, but because a police case he has filed is pending against the alleged perpetrator. And the story behind it goes to the heart of our British Indian community. It involves a Mandir going community, son of a priest, fraudulent photos with Warren Buffet, fake awards.
Where to begin? Let’s try Swindon. Unassuming Swindon. I asked Maulik to put things in his words, and I’ve made some editing and legally required changes.
“On a morning of 29th March 2018 an article appeared in the Swindon Advertiser Nilkesh Mehta which claimed that Nilkesh had won “ International Rising Star Award” for year 17/18 which was given to him by Warren Buffett himself in New York.
“Nilkesh claimed to be FCA regulated, but subsequent investigation shows he is not. Nilkesh then opened up Wiltshire Trading Academy where he starts charging £ 3000 for two days.
“He then came up with an investment scheme where he offered a very attractive 20% return on minimum investment of £20,000 for one year. He claims to have been FCA regulated.
“He also offers 5% commission of the initial invested amount to whoever brings him investment in excess of £ 20,000. Innocent people had invested large amounts of money in the scheme. He claims to be very busy trading Hinduja Brothers large amounts of investment.
“He has lured many innocent victims using Swindon Hindu Samaj, and Hindu Temple platform. In the meantime, one investor found out that sum of money he invested (£50,000) is now lost. His account has been wiped out. Nilkesh claims to have lost that amount of money trading and does not offer him any compensation. His trading academy is closed now and Nilkesh is now not able to provide any updates as he claims to be suffering from severe mental illness up to the extent that he is not able to communicate with anyone.
“After some investigation it is clear the awards he claims to have won never existed. He created false websites confirming his fake awards. He was and he is still not FCA regulated or even registered. He copied his trading techniques from a short video on YouTube for which he was charging £ 3000. He photoshopped pictures with Warren Buffett. He has been doing portfolio management without being FCA regulated. There has been 5 FCA complaints and 4 ActionFraud complaints registered against him.
“It’s very sad to know that neither FCA or Police have taken any solid action against him.”
I would say, sad but not surprising as the BBC has discovered.
Alpesh Patel
The author is founder of www.trading-champions.com , www.sharescope.co.uk/alpesh and www.pipspredator.com
