Three Indian scammers have been allowed to walk free from court despite being found guilty of trying to defraud the National Australia Bank out of $21 million.
NAB senior associate Monika Singh, 42, and IT worker Srinivas Naidu Chamakuri, 51, were sentenced to three years’ jail in the NSW District Court on Monday, while mortgage broker Davendar Deo, 68, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years, Nine News reported.
But Justice Donna Woodburne referred the three “inept” scammers to Corrective Services for assessment to serve home detention, despite finding that none of them showed genuine remorse. The matter returns to court in March.
The trio pleaded not guilty to 19 charges, but were convicted in September by a jury which found Singh gave Chamakuri and Deo blank internal bank vouchers which they used to try to withdraw $16.9 million and $4.8 million respectively.
Staff intervened to stop the transfers and the bank did not lose any money.
The jury also found Singh and Deo conspired to use fraudulent bank guarantees to buy property and gain commissions.
Lawyers for the accused asked for leniency since the attempted fraud was “very far short of sophisticated”, “hopeless and ultimately unsuccessful”, but prosecutors said such a large attempted fraud could not simply be “written off”.
Justice Woodburne found that Chamakuri did not take responsibility for his actions, referring to his statement to the court that “I am truly remorseful for the position I find myself in”, ABC News reported.
Outside court the obese man told reporters he “didn’t do anything”, declared “there’s no money lost”, and claimed he had been “framed”.
Deo had tried to argue that he was “helping a friend”, but Justice Woodburne rejected that excuse, along with Singh’s claim that she was “naively trying to help people without fully understanding the implications”.
Singh, who was allowed to move to Australia from Fiji in 2001 and was previously charged with fraud in Queensland in 2006 while working for the same bank before escaping with a fine and no conviction recorded, tried to blame stress and childhood trauma for her offending.
But the judge said she would have to consider the impact of jail time on Singh’s daughter, who would have to move to the United States to live with extended family.
Outside court Singh also protested her innocence while covering her face, saying: “I did not do anything wrong to the bank … some people have taken advantage and they have run off.”
Header image: Left, Monika Singh. Right, Srinivas Naidu Chamakuri (Nine News).
