CRAIG MORRIS JAILED OVER MULTI-MILLION POUND COVID PPE FRAUD

Craig Morris has been jailed for three years and nine months over a multi-million-pound fraud involving bogus deals for personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. He and Jogesh Bhandari were convicted in July at Leicester Crown Court of two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, plus concealing and transferring criminal property. Bhandari missed Wednesday's sentencing hearing, citing a strong painkiller taken after a pacemaker fitting. Judge William Harbage KC said there was no medical evidence to explain his absence and ordered a bench warrant for his arrest.

His wife, Meenakashi Bhandari, was found guilty of concealing and transferring criminal property and received a two-year sentence suspended for two years, plus 250 hours of unpaid work and 15 days of rehabilitation activity. Prosecutor Michael Bisgrove told the court that Jogesh Bhandari was the "driving force and the instigator" of the fraud, while Morris was "very much working for him". Operating under a company called Banton, the pair claimed to supply millions of boxes of nitrile gloves to buyers in the United States and Germany. They used the proceeds to buy luxury cars, holidays and a new home.

Morris, from Lytham St Annes in Lancashire, and Jogesh Bhandari, from Loughborough in Leicestershire, carried out the fraud during a nationwide shortage of protective equipment. One report described Morris as a school governor who had "enthusiastically" joined the scheme, and said the pair had set up a number of linked companies in 2020 to trade in the gloves. Meenakashi Bhandari's sentence was handed down at the same Northampton hearing at which her husband's case was adjourned. Jogesh Bhandari faces sentencing on 16 October, having missed the original hearing.