A court in south-west England recently sentenced an Indian-origin woman to 10 years in prison for defrauding retailers and businesses out of thousands of pounds. Narinder Kaur, also known as Nina Tiara, 54, had previously been found guilty in March 2023 of 26 charges, including fraud, money laundering, and perverting the course of justice.
She reportedly shoplifted items worth £500,000 (approximately Rs 5,09,65,000) from high street stores in what has been described as an “Olympian-scale” crime.
Narinder Kaur, 54, made theft her profession, tricking stores across the UK into issuing refunds for items she had stolen. Over a span of four years, she targeted major retailers more than 1,000 times, including Bobbs, Debenhams, John Lewis, Monsoon, House of Fraser, and TK Maxx.
Prosecutors stated that she engaged in large-scale shoplifting and tricked stores into refunding her for items she never purchased. Kaur was sentenced at Gloucestershire Crown Court for thefts from more than 1,000 stores across the UK.
“Kaur Is A Calculated Individual”
Steve Tristram, Fraud Investigator from West Mercia Police’s Economic Crime Unit shed the light on the matter revealing, “This sentence today sends out a clear message that West Mercia Police will deal seriously with prolific fraudsters.”
He added, “Kaur is a calculated individual who committed offences across the country, dishonestly claiming refunds on items she had stolen. She showed no remorse for her actions and even thought she would get away with submitting false documents to the court with the intention of perverting the course of justice.”
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The Investigation
The police began investigating Narinder Kaur in 2018, collaborating with the UK’s National Business Crime Solution, a group representing retailers, and other police forces in a coordinated effort.
Tristram, a police representative, noted that further investigation into her criminal activities revealed fraudulent transactions in her bank accounts, ultimately leading to her prosecution.
Kaur was discovered to have traveled extensively across the UK, stealing from well-known high street stores and fraudulently claiming refunds for those items. Between July 2015 and September 2019, she is estimated to have obtained around GBP 2,000 in refunds weekly, totaling over half a million pounds in fraudulent refunds and stolen goods.
Despite being aware of the investigation, Kaur continued to defraud other businesses using dishonestly obtained credit card details from the public. In March 2023, she was convicted at Gloucester Crown Court of fraud, possessing and transferring criminal property, and perverting the course of justice.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) West Midlands stated that, in conjunction with the police, they used financial data, retail records, witness testimonies, and CCTV footage to establish Kaur’s pattern of offending.
The CCTV showed her entering stores, taking items from shelves, and presenting them at the tills as if they had been previously purchased. A thorough examination of her accounts confirmed this fraudulent activity was repeated hundreds of times.
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