It is alleged that Parmjeet Sandhu, his nephew Balginder Sandhu and Lakhwinder Sekhon were part of a scheme to under-declare mail posted through a network of logistics companies in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire.
They worked under Parmjeet Sandhu’s brother, Narinder Sandhu, owner of Packpost International, who has already pleaded guilty, said prosecutors.
Parmjeet Sandhu was director and owner of Tiger International Logistics and Worldwide Transport Express, and Balginder Sandhu was owner of Global Express Worldwide.
The court heard that Parmjeet Sandhu operated the fraud from a warehouse in Slough where his companies were based.
Lakhwinder Sekhon is accused of having helped Narinder Sandhu find properties in which he could invest profits from the fraud.
According to prosecutors, between 2005 and 2017, thousands of items were under-declared by manipulating docket spreadsheets.
“In this case, we will be talking about literal tonnes of mail – thousands of thousands of items,” said prosecutor Ellis Sareen.
He also told jurors: “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.”
The three men deny the charges and the trial continues.
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