Sukhi Sanghera, from Leamington Spa, has been sentenced to eight months in prison on four counts of bankruptcy offences.

Sanghera concealed a rental property from the Official Receiver and his bankruptcy trustees, after being made bankrupt in August 2017 owing more than £140,000.

The Coventry property brought Sanghera a rental income of £1,900 per month, which he hid from his trustees to avoid paying the money out to his creditors.

Sentencing the fifty-year-old – also known as Sukhwinderjit or Sukhwinder – at Warwick Crown Court on 27^th October 2022, the judge, HHJ Berlin, described Sanghera as a “profoundly flawed and dishonest man….who showed a flagrant disregard for the law and authorities.”

Sanghera had an obligation to disclose all his assets to his trustees under the terms of his bankruptcy. The Official Receiver was initially appointed trustee before the administration of Sanghera’s affairs passed to other trustees.

Two years in to Sanghera’s bankruptcy, the Official Receiver requested further restrictions against him “[d]ue to the risk he posed to creditors”. Sanghera admitted that he failed to tell the Official Receiver about the property, of which he was the sole owner. As a result, a ten-year bankruptcy restrictions undertaking was put in place.

Glenn Wicks, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

“At multiple points Sukhi Sanghera had the opportunity to be honest and disclose to his trustees that he benefited from a rental property. Instead, Sukhi Sanghera went to great lengths to conceal the property in Coventry through fraud and deception to avoid paying his creditors what they were owed.”

Sanghera was sentenced to eight-month prison sentences on all four charges under the Insolvency Act 1986. He will serve the sentences concurrently.

Wicks continued: “The courts have recognised the severity of Sukhi Sanghera’s actions and his custodial sentence demonstrates the risks people take if they don’t declare all their assets when in a bankruptcy process.”

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