Online gambler defrauded his own family

Online gambler Balraj Kaler (34) will have sixteen months in a Yorkshire jail to contemplate his actions in defrauding his uncle’s business and driving it into insolvency, costing the jobs of 14 other employees.

This week Kaler of Marcus Way, Mount, Huddersfield, admitted various offences of fraud relating to his position as a credit controller with ACP Coatings Ltd. Over the space of four months between September 2011 and January 2012 he helped himself to almost GBP 63,000 whilst in a key position of trust, a local court was informed.

He also took thousands of pounds from his own brother’s bank account.

Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie said Kaler, who has a degree in business studies, had worked for another of his uncle’s firms in 2010 until it was found that he had run up debts due to his internet gambling habit.

Ritchie said Kaler had been diverting money from that company, too but no action was taken against him and in fact family members paid for him to receive treatment.

He spent five weeks at the clinic at an estimated cost of about GBP 23,000 but after going back to the company he was eventually dismissed.

By July 2010 Kaler’s uncle began to trust him again and got him a job at ACP Coatings but in October last year it was noticed that client payments were not appearing in the company accounts as expected.

The court heard how Kaler sent emails to two firms telling them to make payments into another account which he controlled and used to fund his heavy betting with unnamed online bookmakers.

Judge John Potter found that Kaler also used other accounts to divert money from the company and has additionally “plundered” his brother’s bank account.

In a victim impact statement from Kaler’s uncle it was indicated that ACP Coatings had subsequently gone into administration with 14 people losing their employment, although eleven of those had subsequently been re-employed in a new enterprise.

Related and similar