Brother and sister convicted over charity fraud

Kaldip Singh Lehal and Rajbinder Kaur were both convicted at Birmingham Crown Court

A woman has been found guilty of stealing money from a charity she set up and then trying to cover it up with the help of her brother.

Police said Rajbinder Kaur, 55, from Birmingham, founded Sikh Youth UK in 2016 and took money from it to pay off personal debts, as well as sending money to others including family members.

She was convicted of six counts of theft and one of money laundering at Birmingham Crown Court.

Kaur was also found guilty of knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information to the Charity Commission, as was her brother Kaldip Singh Lehal, 43.

The trial heard how the pair applied to set up the charity, but the Charity Commission shut it down after failing to get enough information.

Despite this, West Midlands Police said Sikh Youth UK collected donations which were then siphoned off by Kaur, who was a former bank worker.

The force said she had more than 50 personal bank accounts in an attempt to make it as complicated as possible to follow the flow of stolen money.

Supt Annie Miller said Kaur, of Hamstead Road, had attempted to portray herself as being financially naive.

But she said: "In the simplest of terms Kaur was stealing large amounts of money that had been donated by local people for good causes."

Kaur and Lehal will be sentenced on 21 November.