DOSANGE: RESTAURANT WORKER SAVAGELY BEATEN FOR STEALING FROM TILL

Two wealthy restaurateurs who beat a thieving employee with an iron bar until his arm broke are behind bars today (thurs).

Jasbir Dosange, 30, and uncle Harmesh Dosange, 46, threatened to kill Gargandeep Singh, 21, after discovering he had stolen cash from the till.

Mr Singh was so terrified that he wet himself during the vicious beating, in which he was forced to empty his account of nearly £4,000 and call relatives to try to raise more cash, the court was told.

The Indian student was finally released the next day after being forced to record a bizarre statement on one of his attacker’s phones saying he had been ‘jumped on’ by a group of strangers.

He needed hospital treatment for his injuries after the assault, which was intended to ‘make an example’ of him in front of other employees at Faulkners fish and chip shop in Kingsland Road, Dalston, east London, jurors heard.

Restaurant owners Jasbir Dosange, 30, and Harmesh Dosange, 46, insisted their victim faked his own injuries after being confronted over the thefts.

They claimed that Mr Singh had injured himself by beating his head against the wall after being confronted with CCTV of the theft to try to deter them from calling police.

But the pair were convicted of false imprisonment, actual bodily harm and blackmail after a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

They were refused bail ahead of sentence on 30 September, despite their family offering £100,000 surety as a guarantee they would return to court.

John McNally, prosecuting, said that Mr Singh had been working at Faulkners fish and chip restaurant in Kingsland Road, which was run by Jasbir Dosange.

It was closely linked to Kingsland Curries next door, which was owned and managed by Harmesh Dosange.

The pair turned off CCTV cameras covering the restaurants to hide any evidence before subjecting him to the all-night attack.

Mr Singh contacted his boss Jasbir Dosange after realising that money had gone missing from his wallet during a shift on February 5 this year at Faulkners, the court heard.

He was asked to come next door to Kingsland Curries and told that Harmesh Dosange had some ideas to ‘sort this out’.

Believing he was going to discuss his missing cash, Mr Singh was led into a small back office at Kingsland Curries by the defendants.

‘He was questioned, not about his money, but about money missing from the till,’ said Mr McNally.

‘When he denied any knowledge of the money missing from the till, he was assaulted.

‘In the face of violence, he retracted his denial and accepted he had taken money from the till.’

‘His admission did him no good, the assault continued, and the defendants turned their minds to demanding money way beyond what he had taken from the till.’

After being slapped hard, Mr Singh admitted that he had taken around £1,000 from the till since he had been denied a wage rise several weeks before, which he later confirmed to police.

But Mr McNally said the ‘brutal attack’ continued after he accepted he had taken cash.

‘His admission was not good enough for the defendants, they didn’t sack him, they didn’t discipline him, they didn’t call the police, they simply carried on.

‘He recalls Harmesh picking up an iron bar, Jasbir punching two times in the right eye, causing the skin to split and bleed, and both hitting him.’

The pair insisted that he owed them £20,000, the court heard.

Mr Singh was forced to make three withdrawals from a cash point within Kingsland Curries between 11.30 and 12.10am which totalled £3,800 – nearly four times the amount he had stolen.

He was then made to call relatives in India and America to try to raise another 40,000 Indian rupees demanded by the pair.

Later, Mr Singh said the restaurateurs had laughed and swigged from a bottle of whiskey as they threatened to cut him into pieces.

‘I thought they were going to kill me,’ he said.

Several colleagues came into the shop while the pair ‘made an example’ of him as they demanded information about any other employees that were stealing.

Finally, he was taken to a room above the shop, where the pair continued to make demands for more cash throughout the night.

The next day, he was driven to his girlfriend’s house nearby, but was not allowed to go until he recorded a message on Harmesh Dosange’s phone, saying he had been ‘jumped on’ by a group of men by a nightclub.

The restaurant owners claimed that Mr Singh had caused his own injuries by beating his head against the wall after being shown CCTV footage from the restaurant tills.

When acted what he was doing, Harmesh Dosange said he replied ‘So if you call the police now, the case will be going against you’.

‘His intention was that I do not call the police and we will sort it out between ourselves,’ he said.

Harmesh Dosange, of (61) Drake Road, Chafford Hundred, Grays, Essex, and Jasbir Dosange, of (146) Beaumont Drive, Gravesend, Kent, were both found guilty of false imprisonment, actual bodily harm and blackmail.

ends