The sentence was handed down at Southwark Crown Court on 8th February.
The court heard how Narinder Sandhu, the owner and director of Pack Post International, had run the decade-long scam, along with brother Parmjeet Sandhu and James Mooney.
The mail was sent through logistics companies in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Prosecutor Ellis Sareen said “thousands” of items were under-declared by manipulating docket spreadsheets until 2017 when Royal Mail investigators uncovered discrepancies.
Mr Sareen said: “In this case, we will be talking about literal tonnes of mail - thousands of thousands of items.”
Sareen told jurors how Parmjeet was “integral” to the fraud, but not rewarded as generously as his brother. He said: “His [Parmjeet's] rewards were commensurate with the importance of his work. He did not do as well as Narinder Sandhu out of this fraud. Narinder Sandhu and his wife Jaswinder had a multi-million-pound home near Beaconsfield. As well as a Bentley, a Rolls-Royce, a pool house, etc. His declared income - what he was paying tax on - was about £1million per year towards the end of the period that the fraud was running.”
Sareen added: “However, it is important not to fall into the trap of thinking that because the loss to Royal Mail was in excess of £70million, there must be a sum this large stashed away somewhere.”
“Some of the gain obtained by defrauding Royal Mail and other postal operators was passed on to customers with lower prices.”
Sentencing the three men Judge Philip Bartle KC said: “The Royal Mail operated a self-declaration system for large customers. These three defendants took advantage of this weakness to persistently under-declare mail for almost a decade. I accept on the case of each of these defendants they are genuinely remorseful. I have no doubt they are genuinely remorseful and that is shown in their willingness to make not only compensation but, very, very, substantial compensation.”
Narinder Sandhu was sentenced to four years. He will only serve half the term before he is released on licence. Parmjeet Sandhu and James Mooney were both handed suspended sentences. Parmjeet Sandhu was given 24 months prison suspended for two years and Mooney was handed 21 months suspended for two years. Parmjeet Sandhu must also complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
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