SANDHU: EX-HUSBAND TRIED TO SELL MARITAL HOME BEHIND BACK OF FORMER WIFE

A bitter ex-husband tried to sell the family home behind his former wife’s back and make off with the £45,000 profit, a court heard today (Fri)

Gurjeet Sandhu, 39, owned the £225,000 property in Ilford with former wife Ratisher Dosanjh Sandu, 41, but told lawyers she had moved to India.

He faked a power of attorney allowing him to act on her behalf and planned to sell the house  for £225,650.

He was only caught out when Mrs Sandu visited the house to find a letter congratulating her on the imminent completion of the sale.

Sandhu later told police that his ‘malicious’ wife was trying to frame him because he refused to hand her a bigger cut of the profits from the property.

Michael Orsulik said the couple married in 1994, and they had taken out a joint mortgage on 54 Crown Road, Ilford, east London.

But the couple, who have one son aged 13, split nine years later in May 2003.

Initially, Sandu continued living in the house and covering the mortgage, but around six months later he agreed with his wife that he would move out and get in tenants to cover the repayments.

However, when his wife visited the house in March 2009, she found the property dark and apparently uninhabited.

Growing suspicious, Mrs Sandu got a locksmith to open the front door, to find that no one was living at the property, which had a large amount of unopened mail inside.

‘These revealed there were proceedings by mortgage company Abbey to re-possess the house, and also, more importantly, that the defendant Mr Sandhu had been trying to sell the house,’ said Mr Orsulik.

‘She found a letter addressed to both Mr and Mrs Sandhu from Red Law solicitors, dated December 24 2008, stating that contracts had been exchanged for the sale of the property and that there was a projected completion date for January 2009.’

However, Mrs Sandhu had known nothing about the proposed sale of the house and had not agreed to it, the court heard.

If the deal had gone through, he would have stood to gain about £45,000 after the joint mortgage was paid off.

Solicitors at Red Law in Walthamstow, east London, immediately stopped the sale after she contacted them. But they informed her that they had been told she was in India and had approved the deal.

‘It turns out that the defendant had used a fake power of attorney to get around the fact he had never approached his ex-wife to ask her to sell the house,’ said Mr Orsulik.

On arrest Sandhu maintained his wife had agreed on the sale but had tried to frame him because he refused to give her more money from the deal.

‘He stated that his wife was malicious and conspiring to get him into trouble,’ said Mr Orsulik.

He later admitted fraud and was jailed for 12 months.

Judge Timothy Lamb told him: ‘What you did undermined the while process of conveyancing.

‘If this had gone through and if it had been blown apart subsequently the purchasers of the property would have been involved in a great deal of time and trouble and expense.’

He added: ‘The system runs by people being honest. What you did through your dishonesty was to undermine it.’

The court heard that Sandhu had struggled with debts after trying to meet payments on the house alone while acting as the sole carer for the couple’s son.

He was forced to leave the marital home originally because he could not meet the repayments, and is still working to clear his debt.

The house was later re-possessed and sold, with Mrs Sandhu receiving around £12,000, and Mr Sandhu getting nothing the court heard.

Sandhu, now of Summerlea, Slough, Berkshire, admitted fraud.

Ends.