A sacked HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officer who abused her position to help her husband launder £3.3m of criminal money has been sentenced today.

Kuldip Badesha, 46, of Chatham, Kent, a former HMRC compliance officer, used HMRC computers to produce letters that included fake National Insurance numbers and signatures.

Her husband, Ranbir Singh, then used the fake details to launder money, some of it linked to a convicted financial adviser.

A HMRC investigation revealed that Mr Singh was a company director to 12 firms, all of which are dormant. Ms Badesha worked for the HMRC compliance team and registered the 12 firms with Companies House and did work for them but failed to declare this to HMRC as a potential conflict of interest.

Ms Badesha created two fake HMRC letters which enabled Mr Singh to open two personal bank accounts with Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander. None of the companies were registered with HMRC for VAT purposes. 

Ms Badesha’s husband Ranbir used the fake NI numbers supplied by her to open two of the 85 bank accounts he used to launder money between 2015 and 2018.

A bank account in the defendants’ joint names had a turnover of over £3m and the Crown Prosecution Service said the account was solely used for money laundering, receiving credits ranging from hundreds of pounds to tens of thousands of pounds.

HMRC said that the entire source of all the laundered money has not been identified but some of the cash was connected to convicted financial adviser Stewart Mark Groves, who took money from a former England footballer Gary Cahill and was jailed in 2019 for fraud.

In a separate case in 2019, Mr Groves, 37, of Bawtry, Doncaster, was sentenced to eight and half years in prison and later banned as a director for 10 years after conning England and Chelsea footballer Gary Cahill out of £800,000. He was jailed for fraud by misrepresentation.

Investigators found that Ms Badesha was leading a lifestyle "beyond her means." This included leasing a Bentley car (pictured) and expensive long-haul holidays.

Ms Badesha met Ranbir Singh (also known as Ray Singh Rana), also aged 46, just before he was jailed for 11 years for kidnap in 2008. She carried on the relationship while he was in prison and married him while he was on weekend release in May 2013.

HMRC said the criminal money began to be laundered when he was on day release and continued after leaving prison on licence in June 2014.

Ms Badesha did not change her surname and failed to tell HMRC about her marriage. She also failed to notify HMRC of her partner’s arrests and convictions, HMRC said. She was arrested by officers from HMRC’s Anti-Corruption Unit in 2018 and dismissed in November 2019.

The pair changed their pleas to guilty just days after their criminal trial started at Southwark Crown Court on 16 September.

Today (November 27) Ranbir Singh was jailed for six years and Kuldip Badesha was handed a 14-month suspended prison sentence (suspended for 18 months) at Southwark Crown Court after admitting a charge of misconduct in public office.

Ranbir Singh was previously convicted of three other offences following recent police investigations and is currently serving more than six years for fraud, money laundering and sexual assault. HMRC said that action to recover the proceeds of crime is under way.

Ben Rollins, internal investigations, head of anti-corruption at HMRC, said: “This was an appalling breach of trust from Kuldip Badesha. She abused her position to help her husband launder millions of pounds. Money laundering allows criminals to profit from the misery they inflict on their victims and often funds even more serious crimes.

“We are absolutely committed to the highest level of integrity and will track down the tiny minority who let us all down by falling short of those standards.”