Man, 54, jailed for fraud offences worth nearly £1million

A 54-year-old man has been jailed for five years after he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of fraud.

Manny Singh Kooner, also known as Harjinder Kooner, committed the offences over a period of more than a year and in that time, defrauded 14 people of nearly £1million.

Kooner, previously of Gunning Court, Horton, offered investment opportunities to a number of people which involved them handing over large sums of money which he said he was using to buy probate properties.

A probate property is a home that is part of a deceased person's estate and is being sold by the executor or administrator of the estate. These properties can sometimes be undervalued due to the executors often wanting to sell it quickly.

Kooner was promising investors that they would receive a return on their investment once he sold the property on, engaging in what detectives believed was a Ponzi scheme, where he would pay one investor off using another investor’s cash.

However, many people didn’t receive any money from Kooner, including their initial downpayment, with him using a number of excuses to delay paying them. Some victims would visit the property they had supposedly invested in, only for the homeowner to tell them that their home hadn’t been listed for sale for years.

Detectives later discovered that Kooner had gambled a lot of the money away.

One victim gave Kooner a total of £180,000 yet only received £20,000 in return whilst another was told that that they could expect £250,000 on their £31,000 investment yet never saw their money again.

In total, 14 victims lost a total of nearly £940,000.

Kooner was investigated by Northamptonshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit and charged with two counts of fraud by false representation and one count of money laundering.

After pleading guilty to the offences at Northampton Crown Court on September 5, 2024, Kooner returned to the same court yesterday (October 31) where he was sentenced to five years in prison.

Lead investigator - Detective Constable Lee Meadows said: “Manny Kooner’s lies allowed him to encourage people to part with their cash and invest in his fraudulent schemes.

“I am pleased that his lies and excuses have caught up with him and that today, he has been sent to prison.

“This has been a complex investigation which has involved speaking to multiple victims from across the country and completing a number of financial enquiries.

“I hope this result demonstrates our thoroughness in investigating such cases as well as our determination to ensure people like Manny Kooner are brought to justice.”