LODHI:FUNLOVING SON OF TOP CIVIL SERVANT SET UP SECRET BANK ACCOUNTS

The son of a ‘very senior’ Pakistani civil servant opened a series of false bank accounts to hide his desire to ‘party’ from his family, a court heard.

Mujtaba Lodhi, 30, carried out the fraud to mask his secret spending from his parents.

The mature student used a fake driving licence to set up three accounts with Santander between October 2008 and July 2009.

Lodhi’s defence lawyer Donal Lawler described the secret bank accounts as his ‘safe’ adding:
‘If there was a receipt from Stringfellows that was his secret and no one had to know about it.’

Lodhi was caught out in January this year when police stopped him in a car and found a number of bank statements in the name of Naveed Khan, debit cards and a large amount of cash.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard a search of Lodhi’s home address uncovered £25,000 in cash.

Bank records showed he had used a fake driving licence to set up the Naveed Khan accounts.

Defence counsel Donal Lawler said Lodhi set up the accounts to allow his client financial freedom from his parents.

He said: ‘Mr Lodhi does not need to do any of this.

‘He is a man who is blessed with a very strong and supportive family.

‘His father is a very senior Pakistani civil servant.

‘But a strong and supportive family can also be a curse, and in Mr Lodhi’s case that is what happened.’

Mr Lawler said Lodhi had been ‘stifled’ by his family and craved the ability to live without scrutiny of his spending habits.

‘He wanted to enjoy himself, he wanted to party and to do things that could not be seen by his family,’ he said.

‘[He said the accounts were] like a safe to which only he had the key. It was his secret.’

Lodhi, of (67) Meridian Place, Isle of Dogs, east London, admitted three charges of fraud.

Sentencing Lodhi to a 12 month community order Judge Catherine Atkinson said: ‘It seems to me that thought there was no financial gain, these offences were significantly aggravated by the use of a false identity document.’

Lodhi was also ordered to complete 180 hours unpaid work.
ENDS