Wiltshire: Woman made £500k tricking shops into refunding stolen items

A woman made half a million pounds by demanding refunds for stolen goods across the country, a court has heard.

Narinder Kaur, 53, has stolen more than 100,000 stores and made it her full-time job.

Her crime spree only ended when police thoroughly examined her bank and credit cards and discovered “an extraordinary history of refund payments.”

She was arrested after raising suspicions when trying to get a refund from Dunelm in Swindon.

The court was told how Worcester resident Kaur had legally changed her name from Nina Tiara.

Prosecutor Gareth Weetman described her as “an intelligent but also highly dishonest and manipulative person” who deceived businesses, banks, lawyers and even the courts.

Undeterred when she was arrested, she continued her life of crime, lying to the courts to have her bail terms changed so she could keep stealing.

The jury heard Kaur discover a way to “beat the system” by getting shops to pay her the full value of things she stole.

They then heard Kaur targeting branches of Boots, Debenhams, Homebase, John Lewis, House of Fraser, Monsoon, M&S and TK Maxx.

She spent £5,000 at Boots shops in Cheltenham, Malvern, Solihull, Kidderminster and Dudley – but was demanding refunds totaling £60,000.

In Debenhams stores she spent £3,600 but received refunds totaling £42,800 and in John Lewis stores in Watford, Chester, Milton Keynes and Cardiff she spent £5,200 but cheated her out of £33,000.

She got retailers Homebase and TK Maxx to give her refunds totaling £19,540 across 15 different cities after spending just £1,181.

She spent £2,850 at House of Fraser stores in Bristol, Cardiff, Cwmbran and Exeter and asked for a £23,000 refund.

After the four-month trial last Friday, Kaur was found guilty of 25 different offences.

These included 14 fraud offences, two money laundering offences, four of possession of criminal proceeds, one of conspiracy to commit fraud and four of perverting the law.

It was the longest jury trial to have taken place at Gloucester Crown Court.

In addition to her fraud in business, Kaur defrauded eight law firms, directed her to sue her brother for money, and used male accomplices to pay compensation with stolen credit cards.

Before the companies discovered the scam, they had already given her the money.

Police eventually searched her home in Cleverton, Wiltshire, and found 49 shopping bags full of goods and £108,000 in cash.

This comes after she tried the same trick at an Asda and police found £4,000 in cash in a carrier bag, among a total of £38,000 near her home.

She was told she faces a “substantial” jail sentence if convicted at a later date.

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