A conman behind one of Britain’s biggest ever property frauds has been jailed for ten years for swindling buyers and splashing the profits of his fraud on supercars, a speedboat, and a life of luxury.
Anopkumar Maudhoo, 46, lured in victims with the offer of deals on repossessed properties and redevelopment of empty plots of land, leading to 75 sales across north London, Hertfordshire, and Essex between 2021 and 2024.
In reality, Maudhoo was only pretending to own the properties and land as he orchestrated a fraud, raking in more than £8.5 million to bankroll his own luxury lifestyle.
At Southwark crown court, he pleaded guilty to 14 counts of fraud by false representation, 16 counts of possessing a false identity document with improper intention, and one count of perverting the course of justice. He also asked for a further 45 offences to be taken into consideration.
On Friday, appearing in court under one of his aliases, Vincent Lebouf, the fraudster was jailed for ten years by Recorder Zane Malik KC.
“Maudhoo went to great lengths to cover his tracks and hide his true identity, causing untold harm to a high number of unsuspecting victims”, said Detective Inspector Damian Barlow, who led the investigation for the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit.
“He was purely motivated by greed, using the proceeds to fund his own lifestyle.”
Police said Maudhoo has a string of fraud offences in his past, he was supposed to be deported to Mauritius in 2010 but dodged the order, and has gone by a series of aliases over the years, including Pascal Burns, Yusef Khan, and Vicenzo Conte.
Two of the victims of the property scam were sold the same home in Belgravia, unaware that Maudhoo had no legal right to handle the sale.
The fraudster fobbed off clients who complained, giving a litany of excuses and sending himself messages under a different name to pretend that he was taking action.
He used a web of companies to swindle clients, creating the impression he had unique access to repossessed and liquidated properties and was in a position carry out the sales.
He told defrauded victims that he was “waiting for bridging loans to come through” or suffering delays at the bank when they came asking for their money back.
When he was arrested last September, police found Maudhoo was living in an upmarket apartment overlooking the Thames and he had rented other properties, including a Knightsbridge address where he was pretending a law firm was based.
He had splashed out millions on a speedboat docked in the River Thames, five Aston Martins, two Bentleys, two Lamborghinis, a Porsche and a Rolls Royce.
Maudhoo had a collection of personalised numberplates for the cars, together with an array of false identity documents he used to maintain the fraudulent empire.
He admitted orchestrating the illicit sale of 75 buildings or development plots since 2021, with victims located in North London, Hertfordshire and Essex, and raked in profits estimated at more than £8.5 million.
Investigators are now working on identifying and seizing Maudhoo’s assets as proceeds of crime.
“This was a complex investigation which involved our teams poring through evidence to piece together the sophisticated criminality that had been taking place – the further we delved, the more offences we uncovered”, said DI Barlow.
“It’s a fantastic result that Maudhoo will now be spending an extended period behind bars, and we’ve already turned our attention to identifying any further assets that could be used to compensate his victims."
